Napocor’s real estate assets also up for sale

Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. has started preparations to sell the real estate properties of National Power Corp. and other non-power holdings after deferring this year the sale of its remaining power assets.

PSALM vice president Conrad Tolentino said the agency had postponed the sale of two power barges, namely PB 101 to 104, originally scheduled by the end of the year.

“No power assets will be sold in the next two months. Even the original schedule for the power barges pegged them at early next year,” Tolentino said.

Each power barge, which runs on diesel, has a capacity of 32 megawatts. Napocor commissioned PB 101 in 1981 and the rest in 1985. The barges are currently moored in the Visayas.

Tolentino also confirmed that PSALM was preparing a sale program for its real estate and other non-power assets. He declined to give out details.

“Real estate assets are scattered across the country, varying in land sizes. Non-power are scrap materials and equipment from the power plants,” he said, adding that Napocor had asked exemption of some property holdings from the privatization.

PSALM said in a separate statement that the new board led by PSALM president and chief executive Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. were expected to finalize PSALM’s privatization plan for the rest of the year and the next.

The agency said the appointment of independent power producer administrators, or IPPAs, for the Unified Leyte geothermal power plant, the Naga power complex and the Malaya thermal power station had been put on hold.

PSALM has still to schedule the bidding for IPPAs that will manage the contracted capacities of the 782-megawatt Caliraya-Botokan-Kalayaan hydropower plants, 100-MW Western Mindanao Power Corp., 50-MW Southern Philippines Power Corp., 200-MW Mindanao coal power complex, the 92.52-MW Mt. Apo 1 and 2 geothermal stations, and the 165-MW Casecnan hydroelectric facility.

It said the privatization of the remaining power plants such as the Agus-Pulangui hydro complex and the Sucat facility would depend on the policy of the Energy Department or other higher authorities.

The sale of the Agus-Pulangui power plants requires consultation with Congress. The Sucat plant, meanwhile, may be recommissioned by the Energy Department. –Alena Mae S. Flores, Manila Standard Today