Power projects to be bid out this week
The state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. will push through with the bidding this week of four diesel-fired power barges and the operation and maintenance contract for the 650-megawatt Malaya thermal power plant in Rizal.
PSALM president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said he expected at least four investor groups to participate in the bidding Wednesday for Power Barges 101, 102, 103 and 104—each of which can generate 32 MW.
This will be the second time that PSALM is bidding out the four power barges, which are being considered by the Department of Energy as a solution to the power supply woes in electricity-starved Mindanao. It is a precondition that the winning bidders must transfer three of the barges now in the Visayas to Mindanao as soon as possible—despite the sentiments put forward by interested companies about the potential difficulties that they might encounter should they transfer the barges to Mindanao.
PSALM will still be offering the barges in three packages, with the first combining PB 101 and 102, both of which are stationed at Bo. Obrero in Iloilo City; package 2 will cover PB 103, which is moored in Botongon, Estancia, Iloilo; and package 3 for PB 104, currently located at the Holcim Compound in Ilang, Davao City.
The first bidding conducted by PSALM last May 16 was declared a failure after receiving only one offer from ACTA Power Corp., a joint venture between the Ayala Group’s AC Energy Holdings and the Phinma-led Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. Prior to the first bidding, at least seven groups had expressed interest to participate in the auction, including San Miguel Corp. and the Lopez-led First Gen Corp.
PSALM will also be bidding on Aug. 17 a P556-million, one-year contract to operate and maintain the Malaya thermal facility.
Two investor groups earlier attended the pre-bid conference for the contract, but PSALM expressed confidence that more companies would be participating in the bidding this Friday.
The Malaya thermal power plant was acquired in the mid 1970s by the state-run National Power Corp. After 20 years, Korea Electric Power Corp. started rehabilitating the facility after it won the international bidding for the rehabilitation, operation, maintenance and management contract conducted by Napocor. It was under Kepco’s management that the power plant was able to operate at its original rated generation capacity of 650 MW. The contract, however, expired in 2011.
SPC Power Corp. then took over, having won a contract to operate and maintain the facility in 2011. This contract is expiring in October this year.
The Malaya thermal facility provides the much-needed additional capacity for the Luzon grid when some of the island’s baseload power plants are not producing either due to forced outages or preventive maintenance activities.
