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TARGETING to spur market competition among
power-industry players, the Department of Energy (DOE)
has recently presented a number of ways in bidding for
the independent power producer administrations (IPPAs).
In a
document furnished to reporters, the proposed schemes
were conceptualized by the DOE together with Rick
Hemmings, a consultant from the United Kingdom.
Among
the schemes, according to the document, were the
operation and management (O&M) contractor scheme; the
contractor/trader/supplier contract buyout; the IPP as
IPPA; the Supply Company Approach; and the combined
Generator/IPPA/Supplier.
Though
the schemes are unconstrained by the guidelines in the
Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) and the
guidelines for IPPAs, the document said the proposed
schemes have been deemed helpful in the development of
the general process of the IPPAs.
The
World Bank, on the other hand, recently commissioned a
study on how to undergo the IPPA bidding process and has
already finalized a proposal.
The
document noted that the O&M contract scheme will
essentially replicate the current mechanism used by
Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.
(Psalm) by splitting the IPP contracts into groups, and
then giving the management of the contracts with the
appropriate operators.
For the
contractor/trader/supplier approach, the DOE said that
this builds on the O&M contractor, which allows the IPPA
to sell on the IPP energy they are managing to
distribution companies and end-customers outside the
franchises when open access starts.
In
addition to this scheme, it added that trading the IPP
output in forward markets will be encouraged and allowed
to hedge Wholesale Electricity Spot Market risk and to
generate additional revenue as and when such markets are
set up.
The
contract buyout approach will involve the full buyout of
some or all the IPP contracts. In the case of a BOT
contract, this would then require the privatization of
the power station as part of the current Napocor/PSALM
plant-sale process. |
