Laguna hydro power plants up for outright sale
The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) has decided on a full privatization of the 796.64-megawatt Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) hydroelectric power plant complex in Laguna on the auction block in an effort to optimize the asset’s value.
The state-run firm said the rebidding process aims, which was previously intended for a new administrator, is intended “to give maximum value to its stakeholders.”
“There is the term for an Ippa (Independent Power Purchase Agreement) with asset sale,” Psalm president and CEO Dennis Edward dela Serna said on Wednesday.
“But Given the term of the IPPA is short, we decided to go for a straight asset sale,” he added.
The CBK plant complex is covered by a build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer and power purchase agreement between the National Power Corp. and CBK Power Company Ltd. which would last until February 2026.
Situated in Lumban, Majayjay and Kalayaan in Laguna, the hydroelectric power complex is one of the power assets being sold by Psalm to settle all the liabilities and obligations it assumed from Napocor.
Delays
Earlier, the Department of Energy said that the bidding for the privatization of the CBK facility was originally scheduled for April. However, it was postponed because of the delays in conducting the third round of the green energy auction (GEA-3).
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said the delays in releasing the price determination methodology for the GEA-3 were caused by the preventive suspension imposed by the Office of the Ombudsman on Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Monalisa Dimalanta last year.
The GEA-3 bidding, which was initially set in November 2024 but was rescheduled for Feb. 5 this year, would focus on geothermal, impounding hydro and pumped-storage hydro.
“Psalm (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.) would have been able to privatize that even without GEA-3 but the concern of the Department of Finance was to enhance the privatization value of CBK and that’s why it got delayed,” Lotilla had said.
After Dimalanta’s reinstatement, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara had said bid prices were already released, which could affect the value of the CBK power complex along with new pumped-storage hydro plants coming in.
Psalm chair and Finance chief Ralph Recto previously said the state-led firm was expecting to generate P50 billion to P100 billion from selling the CBK power facility.
