LISTED Aboitiz Power Corp. (AboitizPower) remains interested in the National Power Corp.’s (Napocor) remaining generating assets and contracted capacities, Erramon Aboitiz, the company president and chief executive, told reporters.

“We continue to be interested in the remaining power assets and contracted capacities of Napocor,” the AboitizPower official.

Among the assets and contracted capacities, Aboitiz said they are specifically interested in the contracted capacity of the Unified Leyte geothermal power complex in the Visayas and the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric power complex in Mindanao.  

Aboitiz said they are just waiting for the privatization schedule to be set by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm).

It is through this privatization process that AboitizPower has acquired the 360-megawatt (MW) Magat hydro power plant, 75-MW Ambuklao hydro power plant, the 100-MW Binga hydro power plant, 462-MW Tiwi-Makban geothermal power complex, the 200-MW power barges, and the contracted capacity of the 700-MW Pagbilao coal-fired power plant.

Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras earlier assured industry stakeholders that the privatization of Napocor’s remaining generation assets and contracted capacities will be implemented as envisioned in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (Epira).

Almendras, who also serves as Psalm’s vice chairman, said the privatization of the contracted capacity of the 131.8 MW Naga power plant will push through either next month or July.

Bidding for the contracted capacity of the Unified Leyte geothermal complex will also push through as soon as Congress resolves the technical question raised over the facility’s planned privatization.

Almendras said Congress is trying to find a way to divide or split the contracted capacity of the Unified Leyte to two winning bidders without breaching the 30-percent generation capacity limit in the Visayas grid.

To date, Psalm has already privatized 91.73 percent of Napocor’s generation assets in the Luzon and Visayas grids, and 68 percent of Napocor’s contracted capacities to independent power producer administrators.

Psalm has yet to bid out the contracted capacities of the Naga power plant, the 559-MW Unified Leyte geothermal capacities, 728-MW Caliraya-Botokan-Kalayaan hydro plants, 100-MW Western Mindanao Power Corp., 50-MW Southern Philippines Power Corp., 200-MW Mindanao Coal plant, 92.52-MW Mount Apo 1 and 2 geothermal project, and 165-MW Casecnan hydropower plant.

Psalm was created under the Epira to manage the privatization of the state’s power assets and to handle the liabilities of Napocor.