THE Calaca coal-fired power plant has attracted a good number of investors that will bid for it when the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) auctions it in the last quarter of the year.

Sources said that 18 prospective bidders for the 600-megawatt Calaca coal-fired power facility attended the pre-bid conference last Wednesday.

Sources identified that companies such as International Power Plc; One Energy; Phil-Mal Energy; JSW Energy; Suez-Tractebel; Calaca High Power; AES Calaca Pte.;  Salcon Power; Korea Electric Power Corp.; DMCI Holdings; Marubeni Corp.; Anglo-Cayman; Global Business Resources; YTL Power International; Trans-Asia Oil and Energy; First Gen Luzon; Bansec Group; and CBI-Global Netherlands B.V. have expressed interest in the power plant.

Sources said the concerns are similar with what they had with the Masinloc facility, particularly on the volume of transition supply contract (TSC) that will be attached to the package.

PSALM vice president for electricity trading and asset management Froilan A. Tampinco earlier said that PSALM plans to attach a supply contract that will include the National Power Corp.’s (Napocor) supply contract with Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to make the package “more attractive.”

The Calaca asset will be scheduled to be placed the auction block for the third time after being declared a failure in May 2005 and another round last April 2006 with only having two parties that submitted offers and failed to meet the prescribed $288-million reserve price.

The Calaca facility, which consists of two 300-megawatt 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 megawatts 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.

Calaca was also designed to rely on domestic coal supply with part of its fuel requirements are sourced from the Semirara coal mine of DMCI in Antique.

Located in Barangay San Rafael, Calaca, Batangas, the Calaca plant consists of two 300-megawatt generating units, which were commissioned on September 11, 1984, for the first unit and July 15, 1995, for the second unit.

THE Calaca coal-fired power plant has attracted a good number of investors that will bid for it when the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) auctions it in the last quarter of the year.

THE permits of Globe Telecom and Innove Communications Inc. to operate cellular networks should be revoked for implementing a per-second charging scheme that is different from their approved authorizations, rival Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) told the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) yesterday.

THE Department of Health (DOH) is standing by its decision to ban four Chinese products in the Philippine market that were found to have been contaminated with formaldehyde used for embalming.

AS THE opening of the Fourteenth Congress draws near, officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) are gearing up for a major face-off with critics in an effort to save the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) from legislative demise.

THE National Economic and Development Authority Productivity Enhancement Program (Neda-PEP), also known as the KR2 Program in Cagayan Valley is now in full swing.