Power plant up for grabs again

A new bid package prepared by the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation for the Saipan power project goes out today to nine companies elevated into the second round of independent reevaluation, according to Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez.

Burns & McDonnell, the private engineering firm hired by the government-owned utility firm for the procedure, is expected to review the “best and final offers” from these companies by the end of this month or early June.

“We are still on schedule as long as we’re within (the) June (time frame),” the utility chief said in an interview yesterday.

There is no detail of the bid package, but the Kansas City-based engineering firm previously has said it would include technical requirements, pricing forms as well as the power purchase agreement that will flesh out the build-operate-transfer scheme of the $120 million project.

All nine companies — out of 13 — including PMIC-Ogden whose protest against CUC’s earlier decision to award the contract to Marubeni-Sithe was the basis for the independent review, have expressed interest to submit their final bids.

A decision is expected to come out by next month, exactly a year after the utility corporation announced its controversial deal with Japan’s Marubeni Corp. and its US partner, Sithe Energies, Inc. to undertake what has been touted the largest project ever in the Northern Marianas.

CUC has since canceled the agreement to give way to the independent re-evaluation as recommended by the public auditor in response to mounting protests against its procurement regulations.

Enron International, one of the companies closely competing for the award, earlier has raised questions on the procedures, noting that final offers were submitted last year by seven firms which made it during the widely-criticized evaluation conducted last year by the CUC management.

Utility officials have not revealed the guidelines on how Burns & McDonnell would undertake the evaluation, which may include new submission of the final offers and a one-on-one interview with proposers.

CUC is under pressure from the government to expedite resolution of dispute to push the 80-megawatt power plant that has stalled for nearly a year.

To be operated by an independent power producer for the next 25 years, the project is designed to meet power shortages on Saipan by the end of this decade.