Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Four bidders vie for BacMan

Four bidders vie for BacMan

By Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:54:00 04/08/2010

Filed Under: Economy and Business and Finance, Energy

THE 150-MEGAWATT (MW) BACON-Manito geothermal facility in Manito, Albay, and Sorsogon City, Sorsogon, has attracted four bidders.

According to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., the government agency in charge of privatizing the power plants of National Power Corp., these four bidders attended Tuesday’s pre-bid conference to clarify certain provisions of the bidding procedures.

Comments raised during the pre-bid conference, however, would not change the bidding procedures for the geothermal facilities, unless PSALM issues a supplemental bid bulletin citing any change, PSALM asset valuation and disposal department manager Ricardo Empleo said in a statement.

All four bidders that participated in the pre-bid conference had complied with PSALM’s initial requirements, including the submission of a letter of interest as well as payment of a non-refundable fee of $2,000.

They likewise executed a confidentiality agreement with PSALM before the March 29 deadline.

Because of this confidentiality agreement, PSALM could not disclose the names of the four bidders, although Aboitiz Power Corp. and the Lopez group’s Energy Development Corp. were said to be among those interested in the geothermal plants.

Deadline for the submission of final bids is scheduled for May 5.

The Bac-Man I geothermal plant is composed of two 55-MW turbines, both commissioned in 1993.

The Bac-Man II plant, on the other hand, is composed of the Cawayan and Botong units, each rated at 20 MW.

The Cawayan unit started commercial operation in 1994, while the Botong unit was commissioned in 1998.

The geothermal steam that fuels the plants’ turbines comes from EDC, the largest geothermal energy producer in the country.

7 comments:

Bacongnon man aco said...

I understand that the bidding has been completed and the Lopez Group won the bid.

M.I. said...

I always appreciate you sharing articles with us.

Bacongnon in Victoria,Canada said...

Let's get back to the Phil. election held last May 10.
It was a successful election inspite of the predictions and fears of failure of the automated process, fraud and violence it turns out quite well. This fortunate result is due to the vigilance of the Philippine media, foreign observers, thousands of independent watchdogs, NAMFREL and most possibly to the maturity of the Filipino people?

Bacongnon man aco said...

Bacongnon in Victoria, Canada:
From where I sit, foreign observers did play a part towards a cleaner than usual elections. So did many of the independent watchers. I am not too sure about the Philippine media, which is well known to be biased and follows the dictates of whoever their owners support politically. NAMFREL has also been proven to be biased as exposed in the 2004 and 2007 elections. They were found guilty of "trending" election results. Hence, the group was not given accreditation and authority to tabulate unofficial results for the 2010 elections.

As for the Filipino people? I would have to agree that the Filipino has achieved a certain level of political maturity. But the extent and sophistication of that maturity still leaves much to be desired. It is however, I think, going in the right direction.

Still there is much work to be done as evidenced by the recent massacre in Maguindanao and reports of violence and vote-buying in the last elections.

One disturbing comment commonly heard is that there was relatively little cheating in the last elections only because the cheaters did not yet know how the automated elections will go. The comment goes on to say that once the politicians learn the nuances of the automated election system, they will develop ways to cheat that system. True or not, this is something that the COMELEC and public election watchdogs should guard against. They should make sure that the automated election system should always be several steps ahead of the cheaters. This is also a possibility where the Filipino public should maintain constant vigilance.

Now that we have seen how a relatively clean election can give credibility to our electoral process, we as Filipinos should not allow the system to return to the previous cheating ways of a graft-ridden corrupt electoral system.

Whatever the future will be for Philippine elections and however that will come about depends on US, the Filipino public.

Victoria said...

To Bacongnon man aco:

I appreciate the logic and wisdom of your comment.

Please continue to contribute more commentaries to this website.

Phoenix said...

To Bacongnon Man Aco:

Thank you for such an intelligent political analysis.

Yes, your contribution to this site is appreciate.

Loma said...

To Bacongnon Man Aco:

Please continue to share with us your intelligent views on any issue.

Thanks.

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