Salcon bags Malaya power plant contract

State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has picked a new contractor for the one-year operation and maintenance of the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya thermal power plant in Pililla, Rizal.

“Salcon Power Corp., the lone bidder, submitted a bid within the approved budget for the contract, so it was declared the winning bidder, subject to post-qualification,” PSALM president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said. The approved budget was P554 million.

Salcon Power won at the September 26 auction for the Malaya operation and maintenance service contract (OMSC). This was the second bidding following a failed first round last month.

Under the auction’s rules, bidders should have completed a contract similar to the project within five years from the date of submission and receipt of bids.

PSALM declared the first round of bidding for the Malaya OMSC a failure after listed SPC Power Corp. was disqualified due to some documentary deficiencies.

Pending the Malaya power plant’s privatization, PSALM is operating the facility in Rizal.

Last year, the OMSC for the power plant was awarded to the SPC Power consortium, a joint venture of SPC Light Co. and SPC Power Corp. The company was the only bidder for the auction. It submitted a bid of P715 million, which was within PSALM’s approved contract requirement of P716.8 million.

The Malaya thermal power facility supplies electricity to the Luzon grid. It was rehabilitated in 1995 by Korea Electric Power Corp. under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-manage-maintain agreement.

The power plant consists of two units, a 300-megawatt (MW) unit with a once-through type boiler and a 350-megawatt unit fitted with a conventional boiler. Both are powered by bunker fuel.