PSALM to bid out ULGPP

MANILA, Philippines - After a failed bidding, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. is looking to auction off anew the Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plants in the first half.

PSALM is seeking the green light from the Department of Energy to bid out the contract for the plant bundled with the 40-megawatt (MW) remaining strip of energy.

“For 2016, Unified Leyte is targeted for privatization but is still subject for further policy direction from the DOE,” PSALM president and CEO Lourdes Alzona said on the sidelines of the Energy Policy and Development Program Conference in Makati City yesterday.

“Our proposal to the board is to include the remaining 40 MW strip with PSALM, so it will be the bulk plus the remaining strip.”

In 2013, PSALM put on the auction block 200 MW of ULGPP’s capacity called strips of energy, while 40 MW remained with the agency as security capacity.

PSALM decided to bundle the IPPA contract with the 40-MW strip following the failed negotiated bid with the Lopez-led Unified Leyte Geothermal Energy Inc. (ULGEI), Alzona said.

“The negotiations failed because their offer did not make the 3 p.m. deadline, so we declared a failed negotiated bidding,” she noted.

ULGEI was the only entity that submitted a bid for the plant in the September 2015 auction. It was also the company that withdrew from the project in 2013 following the damage incurred from Typhoon Yolanda, resulting in the rebidding.