Calaca coal power plant bidding sweetened with supply contract

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) and the National Power Corp. (Napocor) have agreed to attach a 290-megawatt (MW) supply contract to the sale of the Calaca coal-fired power plant in Batangas.

“We approved to attach a little over the transition supply contract (TSC) packaged with the Masinloc power plant,” Napocor president Cyril del Callar said. 

PSALM and Napocor earlier affixed a TSC of 264.5 MW for the 600-MW Masinloc coal power plant in Zambales. 

Del Callar said bulk of the 290 mw supply will be coming from the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise area.

A TSC is crucial in the privatization of Napocor’s assets as this will provide a ready market for the buyers of the power generation facilities.

The government hopes to entice more bidders for the 600-MW power plant. At least 18 groups have attended the recent pre-bid conference for Calaca.

Among the interested companies are: International Power Plc; One Energy; Phil-Mal Energy; JSW Energy; Suez-Tractebel; Calaca High Power AES Calaca Pte; Salcon Power; and Korea Electric Power Corp. 

Other prospective bidders include DMCI Holdings; Marubeni Corp.; Anglo-Cayman; Global Business Resources; YTL Power Int’l; Trans-Asia Oil and Energy; First Gen Luzon; Bansec Group; and CBI-Global Netherlands B.V. 

On Oct.16  this  year, Calaca will be put up for sale for the third time. The two previous biddings in April 2006 and May 2005 failed due to the absence of a TSC. which prompted bidders to submit lower bids than the reserve price set by PSALM.

Calaca could run on local coal, some of which can be sourced from the Semirara coal mine of DMCI in Antique.

The Calaca facility, which consists of two 300-MW generating units, is primarily designed to run as a base-load plant and can operate as a network-frequency regulating plant at a minimum stable load of 150 mw per unit. 

Both units are also designed for plant redundancy, which means that one unit can undergo maintenance without affecting the plant’s full output.