EDC unit turns down power supply contract involving Yolanda-hit Unified Leyte

Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the country's largest geothermal power producer, on Thursday said it is turning turn down the contract to supply power from its Unified Leyte geothermal power plants which were damaged by Typhoon Yolanda.

 

EDC unit Unified Leyte Geothermal Energy Inc. (ULGEI) was one of seven bidders which won a contract as independent power producer administrator from state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) to supply 40 megawatts of power from Unified Leyte geothermal plant which will be distributed by electric cooperatives. 

 

PSALM staged the bidding on November 7, a day before killer typhoon Yolanda barreled through Central Philippines.

 

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, EDC said its wholly-owned subsidiary ULGEI said in a letter to PSALM that "it cannot accept the award of the winning bids as the physical and economic conditions... have been dramatically altered by the severe and widespread destruction caused by Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Eastern and Western Visayas regions."

 

EDC, which operates the Unified Leyte facilities in Tongonan, on Tuesday said the typhoon damaged the cooling towers of the main power plants.

 

PSALM "is carefully studying the matter," chief-of-staff Danielle-Anne O. Rubinos said in a text message to GMA News Online.

 

The other power companies that made it during the Nov. 7 bidding were FDC Utilities Inc., Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corporation, Aboitiz Energy Solutions Inc., Waterfront Mactan Casino Hotel Inc., Good Friends Hydro Resources Corporation, and Vivant Energy Corporation, according to PSALM. – VS, GMA News