Malaya power plant attracts 2 bidders

MANILA, Philippines - The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) received bids from two firms interested to operate and maintain the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant in Rizal.

Newly-appointed PSALM president Lourdes Alzona said Salcon Power Corp. (SPC) and STX Marine Services Co. Ltd. offered to undertake the contract. She, however, declined to divulge their bids.

“This is still subject to post qualification of bidders,” Alzona noted.

The post qualification process will cover the technical and financial aspect of the bids, which will be reported by the bids and awards committee to the PSALM board for awarding.

Prior to the opening of bids, there were four firms that bought bid documents –SPC, STX Marine, OGAS Solutions (Thailand) Ltd. and Kepco KPS Philippines.

PSALM manages the thermal power plant through an operation and maintenance service contract (OMSC).

The contract is good for one year and has an approved budget of P457.28 million, to be sourced through the agency’s 2015 and 2016 corporate operating budgets.

STX Marine is the current operator of the plant, whose contract will end in September.

The Korean firm was also awarded the task to rehabilitate the Rizal-based plant’s Unit 1, which was completed last month. This allowed the power plant to run at full capacity when needed.

Before STX Marine, SPC operated and maintained the Malaya plant since 2011.

However, employees of Malaya power plant have filed a petition with PSALM to stop STX Marine from managing the power plant.

Among the concerns raised by the employees are STX Marine’s expertise only around marine transportation, inability to address concerns on equipment, delay in turbine overhaul, and lack of concern on work-related and safety requirements.

Located in Pililia, Rizal, the Malaya 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. (Kepco) under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-manage-maintain agreement.

The Malaya power plant was designated as a must-run unit (MRU) by the Department of Energy (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.