Danessa
Rivera (The Philippine Star) - January 8, 2018 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines —
State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) is set
to finally privatize the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant (TPP) in
Rizal after the country’s natural gas policy has been issued, a ranking
Department of Energy (DOE) official said.
DOE Assistant Secretary
Leonido Pulido said PSALM could now proceed to privatize the Malaya plant,
which should be converted into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) or coal plant by
the winning bidder, since the Philippine Downstream Natural Gas Regulation
(PDNGR) has been signed by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi last month.
“This year might be the
year that Malaya Thermal Power Plant could be privatized. (It should be)
converted into LNG power plant or coal plant,” he said.
“Now that we have the
PDNGR, and the creation of the review and evaluation committee for downstream
natural gas, the instructions of the (DOE) secretary for PSALM, we can now
proceed with the revisions of the TOR (terms of reference) for the
privatization of Malaya,” Pulido said.
The PDNGR details the rules and regulations governing the downstream natural
gas industry to develop a market and gain energy security and sustainability.
Earlier, DOE
Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said PSALM is just awaiting the
issuance of the natural gas policy to include it in the TOR for the
privatization of the Malaya plant.
PSALM, the entity
created by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to privatize
government-owned assets, originally set the Malaya auction on March 8, 2017.
The asset will be sold on an “as is, where is” basis.
The sale has been reset
to March 30 and then deferred until further notice to take into consideration
the DOE policy to ensure sufficiency of the power supply in the Luzon grid.
PSALM was directed to
include in the TOR Malaya plant’s conversion from running on diesel fuel to
coal or LNG to become a baseload plant.
Baseload power plants
are power generating facilities that can operate reliably and efficiently
generating electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This can be served by
coal, LNG and nuclear plants.
With the natural gas
policy, Pulido said the country would now have a framework for the gas supply
and supply would be secured for the Malaya plant and other upcoming LNG
projects.
“We decided to suspend
privatization of Malaya until we could come up with the assurance that there
will be future supply and that assurance of future supply is the Philippine
Downstream Natural Gas Industry Rules,” he said.
Currently, the Malaya
TPP, which runs on diesel, was designated as a must-run unit (MRU) by the DOE
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment