By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

THE Commonwealth Utilities Corp. received 10 bids on its invitation to prequalify for the government’s power plant privatization project on Saipan.
CUC announced yesterday, however, that it will extend the deadline until April 2.
“A pre-qualification proposal must be received no later than midnight April 2, 2007, Saipan local time, by electronic filing, and follow-up via hand-delivery or courier. A hard copy of an e-filed pre-qualification proposal must be received by CUC no later than 7 working days after the deadline. No material variation from the e-filed version shall be permitted,” said CUC Executive Director Anthony Guerrero in an addendum to the earlier prequalification notice.
Cathy Anderson, the governor’s public information officer, said 10 companies joined the prequalification process.
She said a few more companies are also seeking to prequalify.
The project involves granting a 25-year franchise to a private firm that will operate the power plants on Saipan.
The winning bidder will then sell the electricity to consumers using CUC’s new power rate formula.