PSALM to bid out Malaya thermal power plant OMSC next month

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TUESDAY, 24 JULY 2012 20:18 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA / REPORTER

STATE-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) is set to bid out the operation and maintenance service contract (OMSC) for the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya thermal power plant in Pililia, Rizal, next month.

In an invitation to bid posted on Tuesday, PSALM said the approved budget for the OMSC of the Malaya thermal power plant amounts to P555.8 million.

A pre-bid conference has been set on August 2, while the opening of bids has been set on August 17. Bids received in excess of the approved budget shall be automatically rejected at bid opening, PSALM said.

In October last year PSALM awarded a one-year OMSC contract for the power plant to a consortium led by SPC Light Co. and SPC Power Corp. The contract with the consortium, however, will expire in the next three months, paving the way for another round of bidding.

Conrad Tolentino, PSALM vice president for asset management and electricity trading, earlier told the BusinessMirror that the OMSC contract will be put in place until such time the thermal power plant has been privatized.

Tolentino said PSALM still awaits the Department of Energy’s go-signal to privatize the plant.

The Malaya thermal plant is operated by Kepco under a rehabilitate, operate, maintain and management agreement with the government through the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

The Malaya power plant consists of a 300-MW unit with a once-through, type boiler and a 350-MW unit fitted with a conventional boiler.

One of the parties to the SPC Power Consortium, SPC Power Corp., is the successor owner of the 55-MW Naga Land-Based Gas Turbine (LBGT) Plant after a negotiated bidding conducted by PSALM in October 2009.

Prior to the privatization of the Naga LBGT Plant, SPC Power Corp. (formerly Salcon Power Corp.) entered into a 15-year contract with the Napocor for the rehabilitation, operation, maintenance and management of the 203.8-MW Naga power plant complex from 1994 to 2009, and an OMSC with PSALM from July 2010 to March 2012.    source