Saturday, January 27, 2007 Meralco seeks partner in bidding for 2 geothermal facilities
MANILA Electric Company (Meralco) is open to a joint partnership in bidding for the 275-megawatt (MW) Tiwi Geothermal Power Plant in Tiwi, Albay and the 425.3-MW Makban Geothermal power plant in Laguna and Batangas.
Meralco president Jesus Francisco said they are interested in the two facilities because they are in Meralco's franchise areas.
Should they win the operation contract on Tiwi-Makban, "it's possible for us to build transmission lines and not pass through Transco (National Transmission Corporation)," Francisco said.
The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (Psalm) is preparing the Tiwi-Makban plants, which will be on the auction block in July.
Aside from geothermal plants, Francisco said Meralco is interested in hydropower asset of the National Power Corporation (Napocor). "Hydropower is cheap thus it's a good way of lowering electricity costs for our consumers," Francisco said.
Meralco board chairman Manuel Lopez, for his part, said the board already approved plans to invest in power generation. "We are very attracted with the possibility of going back again to further generation investments. So that's an option, but right now we're just looking at some assets of Napocor that are being privatized," Lopez said.
Meralco has a 40-percent stake in First Private Power Corporation (FPPC), which is 93.25 percent owned by Bauang Private Power Corporation (BPPC). FPPC is a consortium composed of Meralco, First Gen Corporation and JG Summit. (MSN/Sunnex)
