PSALM completes fuel supply auctions

MANILA, Philippines - State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has completed two auctions last month for the supply of oil and coal to fuel existing power plants.

The company has awarded an $8.5-million coal supply contract to a joint venture of Indonesian firms and will soon finalize another deal for P1.011 billion worth of industrial fuel, an official said.

“The Oct. 30 bidding for imported steaming coal was successful,” Conrad Tolentino, PSALM vice-president for asset management, said in a mobile phone message.

The contract was awarded to the joint venture of PT Baramulti Sugih Sentosa, PT Baradinamika Mudasukses and Brooklyn Enterprises Pte. Ltd., he said.

PSALM allocated as much as $8.429 million as payment for the supply of 64,000 metric tons of steaming coal.

The coal will be used to fuel the 145.8-megawatt (MW) Naga power plant complex in Cebu.

It is composed of three thermal power plants that use a combination of diesel, bunker C oil and coal as fuel. These power plants are: the 50-MW, coal-fired Cebu Thermal Power Plant 1, the 56.8-MW Cebu Thermal Power Plant 2 and the 39-MW Cebu Diesel Power Plant 1.

Meanwhile, Tolentino said the Nov. 6 bidding for industrial fuel oil supply was also successful.

“Post-qualification is still ongoing for the industrial fuel oil,” Tolentino said.

PSALM approved a budget of P1.011 billion to pay for 29 million liters of industrial fuel oil.