Finish firm to bid for power grid
Philippines Diary Inquirer, 9 January 2004

By Ronnel W. Domingo

A FINISH company has emerged as a challenger to Singapore Power Ltd. For the privatization contract covering the national power grid system of the National Transmission Corp.

A Transco official said in an interview that the Finish firm, which was not identified, would start its due diligence study of the national power grid system next month.

Meanwhile, a ranking energy official said Singapore Power Ltd. was going into the advance study after completing the technical part of the process.

"Singapore Power is sending teams to evaluate the commercial aspects as well as the regulatory situation in the country," the energy official said.

Bidding for Transco's privatization had failed twice last year as only the Singaporean firm was interested in the contract.

The lukewarm interest among investors and the resulting delay in the privatization process gave rise to calls for the Senate to grant Transco the right to readily assign its franchise over the transmission system to the winning bidder.

House energy committee chair Rep. Alipio Cirilo Badelles said earlier that having a transferable franchise would attract more bidders.

Badelles underscored the need to immediately privatize the transmission system and get sector participants to upgrade it because the system is very old and prone to damage, thus, causing blackout.

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