PSALM sets sale of Malaya Thermal Power Plant on April 24

MANILA, Philippines — State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has set the sale of the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant (TPP) after the Holy Week break, its top official said.

PSALM has scheduled the bidding for the power asset on April 24, its president and CEO Irene Joy Besido-Garcia said in a text message to The STAR.

She said the new bidding schedule was set after the Holy Week break to give time to come out with a valuation of the power asset.

“This is to ensure the completion of the third party appraisal,” Besido-Garcia said.

The Malaya TPP was supposed to be auctioned last Dec. 14, but the PSALM board decided to push back the privatization schedule since there is no basis for a base price yet.

The base price for the asset should have come from third party assessment on the facility. However, PSALM had several failed biddings for consulting services.

At that time, no consultancy firm participated since the agency required a short period to do the valuation for the Malaya asset.

For the sale of the asset, PSALM had previously said there were four qualified bidders namely AC Energy Inc., DM Wenceslao and Associates Inc.,  DMCI Power Corp., and FGen Reliable Energy Holdings Inc.

This was down from the 11 firms that submitted letters of interest.

While waiting for the privatization of the government asset, the Malaya TPP will be operated and maintained by Korean company Soosan ENS Co. Ltd. for a period of one year.

PSALM issued the operation and maintenance contract to Soosan, which was declared the lowest compliant bidder with its P205.73 million offer.

Part of the responsibilities under the service contract include the day-to-day upkeep, management and maintenance or repair of the power plant and its equipment.

Located in Pililia, Rizal, the Malaya TPP consists of a 300-MW unit with a once-through type boiler and a 350-MW unit fitted with a conventional boiler.

It was last rehabilitated in 1995 by Korea Electric Power Corp. under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-manage-maintain agreement.

The Malaya power plant was designated as a must run unit by the Department of Energy to address supply deficiency when operating power plants in the grid suddenly bog down or become unavailable.

It will operate as an MRU until the DOE finalizes its privatization schedule.