Firm to continue operating Naga plant despite turnover

Despite yesterday’s turnover, a Naga City power plant will be operated by a private firm until the government finds a suitable buyer.

Salcon Power Corp. (SPC) in Naga City officially turned over the 187-megawatt Naga power plant to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp. after their 15-year contract expired yesterday.

But SPC was given a six-month extension after PSALM declared a failure of bidding last Feb.

SPC president Dennis Villareal said Napocor extended their management through an Operation and Maintenance Service Contract (OSMC).

The next bidding is scheduled this July.  “Until then, we will continue to run the Naga Complex without interruption,” Villareal told reporters after yesterday’s turn-over ceremony.

PSALM official Ina Alazas said they would open the Naga plant for bidding to other power operators.

“For the operators, it is costly and the contract is also too short for them,” Alazas told reporters.

She said they plan to privatize the power plant in the long run.

Alazas said after the contract ends, they will assume responsibility for the plant’s 100 employees. Alazas said the SPC can decide how to handle the employees which they hired in the meantime.

Villareal said they oversaw operations of the plant as part of its Rehabilitate-Operate-Maintain-and-Manage Agreement between them and National Power Corp. back in 1993.

“PSALM believed that we are the most qualified to run the power plant,” he said.  The Naga power plant produces approximately 185 megawatts of power for the Visayas grid daily from diesel and biogas.

Once their contract ends after six months, Villareal said they will focus their operation with the adjacent  Korean Electric Power Corp.–SPC (KSPC) that they also owned.

He said they have no plans of building another coal-fired power plant since Cebu has enough power supply for short-term use. /Candeze R. Mongaya, Reporter