MANILA, Philippines - Aboitiz Power Corp., the electricity arm of the Aboitiz Group, will take in a Negros-based grains trader and miller as partner for the privatization of the output of the 210-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental.
“We’re definitely going for it and we will be very aggressive,” AboitizPower president and COO Antonio Moraza said in a recent interview.
The company, through wholly-owned unit Therma South Inc., earlier expressed interest in administering the output of the Mindanao power plant.
For the auction on Nov. 25 this year, AboitizPower is teaming up with grains trader and miller La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp., the lead proponent for the independent power producer administrator (IPPA) contract of the Mindanao coal plant.
“As a matter of fact, the bidder is La Filipina. We’re partnering with them,” Moraza noted.
La Filipina has been a long-time partner of AboitizPower.
The plant, located in Misamis Oriental, is operated by German-led Steag State Power Inc. under a 25-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) power purchase agreement scheme until 2031.
Germany’s Steag owns 51 percent of Steag State Power, with AboitizPower owning 34 percent and La Filipina the remaining 15 percent.
Steag State Power Inc. operates the Misamis Oriental plant, which was constructed under a BOT agreement with the government.
Earlier this month, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) announced it has pushed back the bidding for the IPPA contract of the Mindanao coal-fired thermal power plant from Sept. 23 to Nov. 25 after considering the Department of Energy’s directive to defer the auction.