Monday, December 03, 2007 No hydropower in Visayas
AS the Cebu-based Aboitiz Group eyes another state-owned power generation asset, a company official said there are no viable prospects for hydroelectricity in the Visayas.
Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) executive vice president and chief operating officer Erramon Aboitiz said that while the company is a “firm believer” of hydroelectricity, it has not found any viable hydropower resources in the Visayas.
“We believe in the power business. We’re a firm believer in hydropower, in renewable energy,” he said.
He told news reporters during an Aboitiz-initiated event last Thursday that hydropower plants and other renewable energy sources would help protect the country from the rising cost of oil and traditional fuel.
However, there are not enough resources in the Visayas that can be harnessed to generate hydroelectricity.
Not viable
Aboitiz said that while there are “little” resources in Panay, these will be too expensive to tap and “will not be viable” in the present situation.
SN Aboitiz Power Hydro Inc., a consortium between AEV and SN Power AS of Norway, submitted the highest bid for the Ambuklao-Binga Hydroelectric Power Complex in Benget. SN Aboitiz Power offered $325 million for the complex which consists of a 75-megawatt Ambuklao hydro and the 100-megawatt Binga hydro.
Aboitiz said Aboitiz Power (AP) hopes to win in the bidding for the Palinpinon geothermal plant of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) in Oriental Negros.
The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) originally set the auction of the 192.5-megawatt Palinpinon geothermal power plant on Wednesday.
But the Manila Bulletin reported yesterday that Psalm will be rescheduling the auction for the Palinpinon power plant while it tries to resolve certain provisions in the geothermal resource sales contract for the facility.
Bidders
The Palinpinon geothermal plant has two power stations and is connected, through a submarine cable, to the Cebu-Negros-Panay-Bohol-Leyte-Samar grid. It supplies 18 to 20 percent of power requirements in the Cebu-Negros-Panay-Bohol-Leyte-Samar grid.
In the bidding for the Palinpinon facility, AP would be up against the Lopez-controlled Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp., First Gen Geothermal Corp., Trans-Asia Oil and Energy, Salcon Power Corp., Itochu Corp., Kanematsu Corp., Korea Electric Power Corp., Reykjavik Energy Investment/Geyser Green Energy and Suez Energy Asia Co. Ltd.
Aboitiz also revealed that the company will be rehabilitating the Ambuklao and Binga facilities to make these more efficient.
He said aside from the remaining proceeds from AP’s initial public offering (IPO), the group will use borrowings from bank and its own equity to fund its power projects.
“We still have about $200 million from the AP IPO alone,” he said.
Aside from its recent acquisition of state-owned power generation assets, the Aboitiz Group also has shareholdings in Cebu Private Power Corp. and East Asia Utilities. It also controls the Visayan Electric Co. (LAP)
