The consortium Quantum-GLU would be the winner of a long-term contract to supply 335 MW generated from a power plant that would be built by the company.
A statement from the National Energy Board reads:
The electricity distribution company DELSUR has made public the financial bids offered by two companies who submitted documents for the tender for 355 megawatts (MW) of power and associated energy, namely: Asocio Quantum-GLU and AES Fonseca Energía, who on October 1 submitted the information required to participate in the tender for the supply of power for 20 years.
AES Fonseca Energía LTO de CV and Asocio Quantum-GLU submitted their technical and financial bids in the tender organized by Del Sur.
"The technical bids will immediately be reviewed by the evaluation committee of the distributors, advised by a group of prestigious local consultants who will look at the legal issues, especially technical and financial ones," said the general manager of the Del Sur, Roberto Gonzalez.
The new mayor will maintain the ban on power plants using coal or bunker fuel, but accepted those running on clean energy.
The new mayor of the municipality of La Union, Ezequiel Milla, has amended a decree prohibiting the installation of power plants that used coal, liquefied natural gas or any derivation of hydrocarbons as fuel, which was not conducive to investment in the city.
A municipal ordinance in La Union prohibits power plants based on coal or gas meaning that AES will be unable to take part in the tender for 350 MW.
The power generator AES Fonseca will not participate in the bidding for 350 MW for a period of 16 years scheduled for Monday, March 19th due to an ordinance of La Union, which prohibits the construction of power plants based on coal and gas.
On Monday March 19th bids will be opened for the tender for the procurement of 350MW, equivalent to one third of domestic consumption, for a period of 15 years.
The contract is being administered by the distributor DelSur, which belongs to the Colombian company EPM, but the energy will be acquired by this distributor as well as the distributors AES El Salvador: CAESS, EEO, CLESA, and DEUSEM.
The General Superintendency for Electricity has set a new date, February 9th 2012, for the deadline for submission of bids for the long term supply of 350MW.
With this move the regulator has ruled in favor of the company Cutuco Energy who appealed against a change in the date.
"According to the timetable set by SIGET for this contest, which is led by DelSur, financial bids should have been received from the generators interested by Jan 6th 2012.
The Superintendency of Electricity has postponed until April 18, 2012 the date for receiving bids for the long term supply of 350MW.
The distributor DelSur, organizer of the process, requested the extension from the refulator on Nov. 28. The request for extra time comes from four companies participating in the process, AES Fonseca Energía y EMC El Salvador, known as the Honduran Terra Group.
The AES Fonseca project in La Union has invested $14 million of the $970 million required by the 250 MW natural gas power plant.
AES Corporation has announced that it has most of the necessary environmental permits for the project and will participate in the tender for the provision of long-term energy to be held in January 2012.
The original project envisaged by Fonseca AES was a coal-fired operation, but by mid-2010 it announced a change in the design to one based on natural gas, which involved the application of new licenses, bringing the total investment, projected initially at about $500 million to the currently estimated $970 million.
At least seven projects are stalled, waiting for the country's situation to improve.
Newspaper elsalvador.com detailed major investment projects which are on stand-by in El Salvador:
- Cutuco Energy and AES Fonseca (energy, $ 1,630 million)
- Porto Pango (tourism, $ 300 million)
- Encanto Villas & Golf (residential, $ 100 million)
- Europlaza World Business Hotel (tourist and business)
The cost of the coal plant that the AES Fonseca company will build at the future La Union Port will be some $600 million.
The cost of construction, which is slated to start at the end of January or early February, increased due to high steel prices, according to Neil Watlington, AES Fonseca director.
AES has already found international financial institutions that are interested in the electric energy project.