Wednesday, December 20, 2006 Aboitiz, foreign firm submit bid for power plant
SN Aboitiz Power Inc., a joint venture between Aboitiz Power Corp. and SN Power of Norway, has submitted last week the highest bid to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) for the 360-megawatt (mw) Magat Hydroelectric Power Plant Complex located in Isabela Province.
If the Psalm board decides to award the power plant to SN Aboitiz Power, it will be the second hydroelectric asset to be acquired by the Aboitiz group from the government.
Early in 2005, Hedcor Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Power, took over the 3.5-mw Talomo hydroelectric facility located in Davao del Norte, the first National Power Corp. generation asset to be privatized.
The Magat facility will add a significant amount of hydroelectric capacity to Aboitiz Power’s portfolio of power generation assets. It already owns, through Hedcor Inc., a total of 112 mw of capacity distributed over various plants in the provinces of Benguet, Davao and Ilocos Norte.
It also has interests in two diesel-fired plants in Mindanao with a total capacity of 150 mw, in partnership with the Alcantara group.
SN Power, Aboitiz Power’s partner in the Magat project, is an investor and developer of hydropower projects in emerging markets, with existing capacity of 1,435 mw in Asia and Latin America.
Aboitiz Power looks forward to bidding for other power generation assets to be auctioned off by the government, including the Binga and Ambuklao facilities.
Aboitiz Power is also developing 72 mw of new hydropower capacity in the Davao area to meet the growing demand for power in Davao. (PR)
