Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- February 2, 2020 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Power
Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has set the sale of the
650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant (TTP) in April.
PSALM has published an invitation to
bid to start the third round of bidding for the Malaya TTP Monday.
It gave interested parties until
March 12 to submit letters of interest (LOIs) to join the privatization
program.
“Only parties who submitted LOI and
who have been issued PSALM’s bidding package will be allowed to participate in
the privatization of the assets,” PSALM said.
The agency said it would hold a
pre-bid conference on Feb. 13 to solicit any comments and concerns of
interested bidders regarding the bidding requirements and asset sale
provisions.
Meanwhile, PSALM has set the bid
opening on April 15.
PSALM is determined to privatize the
asset, which is sold on an “as-is-where-is” basis, by taking the necessary
steps to adjust the minimum bid price (MBP).
It has also conducted valuation
studies on MTPP and its underlying land in determining the reserve bid price.
Earlier, PSALM asked the Commission
on Audit (COA) to allow it to lower the price of Malaya (TPP) after two rounds
of failed bidding.
The current MBP of the asset, according
to COA, is P4.48 billion. However, interested bidders found the price too steep
since the power plant is already old.
The Malaya TPP currently has two
units but only Unit 2 is working.
In a text message, PSALM president
and chief executive officer Irene Besido-Garcia said the agency decided to
start the third round of bidding for Malaya since the privatization process is
long, and that there is time before the setting of the MBP.
The plant, which currently runs on
diesel, was designated as a must-run unit (MRU) 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.
Located in Pililia, Rizal, the plant
consists of a 300-MW unit with a once-through type boiler and a 350-MW unit
fitted with a conventional boiler.
It was last rehabilitated in 1995 by
Korea Electric Power Corp. under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-manage-maintain
agreement.
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