Philippines Closes Geothermal Bidding Round, Gets 3 Bids
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
MANILA (Dow Jones)--The Philippines' Department of Energy said Tuesday the country's first geothermal bidding round secured proposals from three local and foreign firms to either develop or upgrade geothermal sites.
Energy Secretary Vincent Perez identified Japan's Mitsui Co. (8031.TO) and Marubeni Corp. (8002.TO), and local firm CPI Energies as the interested parties.
Perez said Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp., or PNOC-EDC, the geothermal development arm of the government, has started to evaluate the proposals.
The energy department said two bids were submitted for the development of the Rangas-Tanawon geothermal site in the southern portion of the main island of Luzon, and one for the upgrade of the North Cotobato geothermal field in the southern region of Mindanao.
Financial details of the proposals weren't disclosed.
The Rangas-Tanawon field has the potential to generate between 40 and 80 megawatts of electricity.
Meanwhile, the excess geothermal steam being produced in North Cotobato has the potential to generate an additional 20 megawatts under the optimization plan.
Early this year, the government opened 10 prospective geothermal fields for development or upgrading proposals. Together these fields are estimated to be capable of generating as much as 470 MW of additional electricity.
The government has warned that the Philippines could suffer from acute power shortages in four years unless new power generation capacity is built soon. Just a decade ago, the Philippines was reeling from 12-hour power outages that caused a sharp economic slowdown.
posted by philpower @ 9:37 AM,
