PSALM seeks coal suppliers

Manila, Philippines - State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) is looking for suppliers that will provide roughly P500 million worth of coal for a power complex in Cebu.

In a bid bulletin, PSALM said it allotted P439.8 million as the approved budget for the contract to pay the “the supply and delivery of 84,000 metric tons to Naga power plant complex in Cebu.”

“Bids in excess of the approved budget for the contract shall be automatically rejected at bid opening,” PSALM said.

The coal supply, which is for the 145.8-megawatt (MW) Naga power plant complex, should have been blended with around 10 percent of local coal.

In May, PSALM conducted a bidding for P488 million worth of coal supply for the power complex. The coal supply was subject to several failed biddings in April and February this year.

PSALM said potential bidders should have completed a similar project equivalent to 25 percent of the approved contract cost within five years from the bid submission.

Firms are required to buy the bidding documents for a non-refundable fee of P100,000.

A pre-bid conference is scheduled on July 30 while the opening of the bids will be on Aug. 14.

The Naga power complex is operated and maintained by SPC Power Corp., a venture company led by the Salcon consortium that entered into a deal with the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to rehabilitate, operate, maintain and manage the Naga power plant complex starting in 1994.

It is composed of three thermal power plants that use a combination of diesel, bunker C oil and coal as fuel. These power plants are: the 50-MW, coal-fired Cebu Thermal Power Plant 1, the 56.8-MW Cebu Thermal Power Plant 2 and the 39-MW Cebu Diesel Power Plant 1.

The PSALM, formed by the 2001 Electric Power Industry Reform Act, is the state firm in charge of privatizing government power assets as well as managing Napocor’s power plants and debt. It buys the fuel requirements of state-owned power plants.