STATE-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has approved a budget of P264 million for the one-year contract to operate and maintain the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant.
PSALM said the operation and maintenance (O&M) service contract will be awarded via a competitive bid open to local and foreign bidders, subject to eligibility conditions.
“To date, eight companies have expressed interest, three of which bought bid documents,” the agency said in a statement.
It said a pre-bid conference was held on May 2 to give interested bidders “the opportunity to clarify any concerns they have on the bidding documents, the scope of work and other details” relating to the contract.
The eligibility conditions are provided in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9184, also known as the Government Procurement Reform Act.
PSALM said to clarify queries from bidders, the deadline for submission of bids had been moved to May 30, after close of which the opening of the bids will start at 10:15 a.m.
“This extension will encourage and provide bidders ample time to secure bid documents at the PSALM office in Diliman, Quezon City,” PSALM said, adding that a nonrefundable fee of P50,000 is required.
The Malaya power plant is being managed by PSALM through an operation and maintenance service contract. The current operator of the power plant is STX Marine Service Co. Ltd. whose contract will expire on Aug. 24.
It was rehabilitated in 1995 by Korea Electric Power Corp. under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-manage-maintain agreement.
The plant in Pililla, Rizal was designated in 2014 as a “must-run” unit by the Department of Energy.
A must-run plant “is compelled to run and provide the needed power supply as deemed necessary to ensure reliability of power supply in the Luzon grid, especially in times of supply shortfall, system security and voltage support,” PSALM said. — Victor V. Saulon

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