Source: Manila Bulletin, 23 May 2012

MANILA, Philippines — The rehabilitation, operation and maintenance (ROM) of the two auxiliary units of the Angat hydroelectric power plant is being offered to interested private sector via the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

The auxiliary units 4 and 5 of the Angat plant have capacities of 10 megawatts and 18MW, respectively. These are owned by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and currently operated by the National Power Corporation.

These particular generating units with aggregate power capacity of 28MW have been exempted from the earlier privatization undertaken by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) for the NPC assets.

That specific bidding was won by Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water), but the award was prevented by a court case lodged against the divestment process.

In a tender notice issued by the MWSS, it indicated that it is “keen to enter into a PPP for the rehabilitation, operation and maintenance of the Angat hydroelectric plant auxiliary turbine 4 and 5.”

The MWSS has tapped the Rebel Group in consortium with CRISIL, Allen & Overy, Royal Haskoning and ACCRA Law, as advisors for the transaction.

A ‘‘preliminary interaction’’ with interested bidders is slated today (May 24) at the PPP Center in Quezon City. The Angat dam is a multi-purpose facility which is into irrigation, water supply, flood control and generation of electricity.

The bulk of Angat’s power generation rated at 246 megawatts is with NPC; while the auxiliary units are attributable to MWSS. It has four main generating units of 50MW each and a third auxiliary unit of 6MW.

For the scheduled ‘‘interaction with interested parties,’’ Rebel Group team leader Pratyush P. Prashant noted that the objective will be “to share information related to the project and better understand potential commercial and technical concerns.”

It has been further explained that the ROM deal for the Angat plant is intended to uprate and improve the efficiency of its auxiliary units.