Aboitiz Power spends $150 million to hike Tiwi-Makban capacity

MANILA, Philippines - Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) will be spending $150 million in the next five years to upgrade and rehabilitate the Tiwi and Makban geothermal facilities. The fresh investment will be used to increase both plants’ capacities during the next four years, Luis Miguel Aboitiz, APC’s senior vice-president for power generation said during the turnover ceremony held on Monday. The facilities will be upgraded so that these can produce 517 megawatts (mW), Aboitiz added. Located at the boundary of Bay and Calauan towns in Laguna and Sto. Tomas, Batangas, the Tiwi-Makban facilities consists of plants A and B, which can produce 63 mWs of power each. Plant C has two facilities that can produce 55 mWs each while plants D and E has two 20 mW facilities that can generate 20 mWs each. Tiwi-Makban also has a binary plant which has five 3 mW and a 0.73 mW facilities. The ceremony witnessed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo included the official turnover of the key to Tiwi-Makban and the company’s 40 percent payment amounting to P8.2 billion. The company, through its subsidiary AP Renewables, also remitted another P492 million to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) as payment for its land lease. Psalm, the agency tasked to sell the government’s power plants, attached a 400 mW supply contract to Tiwi-Makban to attract investors. In July last year, the power holding company of the Aboitiz group secured the right to run and manage the facility after submitting a bid price of $ 446.888 million. During the ceremony, Aboitiz told reporters that the company remains interested in acquiring contracts of independent power producers (IPPs) this year. Besides expressing interest in Casecnan and San Roque facilities in Luzon, APC is also eyeing a bid for the 600 mW Calaca plant and a Limay facility in Bataan. For his part, Jose C. Ibazeta, Psalm president and chief executive officer, said that it has already contributed $ 1.3 billion to government coffers after selling power assets. Shares of APC remained unchanged at P5.40 apiece. - GMANews.TV