Manila Times.net
STATE-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has extended Kepco Philippines Corp.’s contract to operate the Malaya power plant.
Department of Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, who is also PSALM vice chairman, said the agency extended “for six months the contract for Malaya.”
Located in Rizal province, the 650-megawatt diesel fired Malaya plant is operated by the local unit of Korea Electric Power Corp. under a rehabilitate-operate-maintain-manage agreement with the government that lapsed last month.
Emmanuel Ledesma, PSALM president, said that the extension of the contract would ensure the continued operation of the plant.
Almendras said that the contract extension would also give the government the opportunity to raise the value of the facility, which is up for privatization.
Government plans to sell the Malaya plant once the proposed Batangas-Manila natural gas pipeline (Bat-Man 1) is completed. With the pipe network in place, the power plant could be converted for natural gas use.
“Hopefully when the pipeline is finished we can sell Malaya at a higher value,” Almendras said.
The 100-kilometer pipeline project, which state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) would undertake through unit PNOC-Exploration Corp., is envisioned to make gas from Malampaya, the country’s largest gas field, available to potential users in the industrial, commercial, transport and residential sectors in Metro Manila.EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO
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