Malaya thermal plant bidding fails – PSALM

MANILA, Philippines — State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) declared a  failed bidding for the sale of the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant (TPP) after only one bidder submitted an offer.

“Unfortunately, PSALM was constrained to declare a failure of bidding during the public bidding held for the Malaya plant,” PSALM president and chief executive officer Irene Joy Besido-Garcia said in a text message.

Only one company submitted an offer in the opening of bids.

“Under the PSALM bidding procedures, if only one bid is received by PSALM by the bid submission deadline, then there will be a failure of bidding,” Besido-Garcia said.

“There were actually four qualified bidders for Malaya, but only AC Energy Inc. submitted a bid,” she said.

PSALM is now preparing to rebid the asset by asking the go signal from its board.

“We will immediately prepare for the second round of bidding as soon as we submit the matter to the PSALM board,” Besido-Garcia said.

The sale of the Malaya TPP has been delayed for two years. It was originally scheduled for privatization in March 2017 but has been deferred many times after the Department of Energy (DOE) proposed to convert it into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.

The plant, which currently runs on diesel, was designated as a must-run unit (MRU) 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.

After changing the terms of reference, PSALM then set the sale of the power asset in December 2018, but the PSALM board decided to push back the privatization anew since there is no basis for a base price yet.

PSALM engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Philippines to do the valuation of the Malaya TPP and its underlying land after two failed public biddings and four failed negotiated procurements.

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.