Four firms are interested to operate and maintain the Malaya Thermal Power Plant Complex (MTPP) for a year, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said.
PSALM Officer-In-Charge and Vice President for Finance Lourdes Alzona identified the interested bidders. They are SPC Malaya Power Corp., STX Marine Services Co. Ltd., OGAS Solutions (Thailand) Ltd., and KEPCO KPS Philippines.
STX Marine is the current operation and maintenance (O&M) contractor for the facility. However, its contract is set to expire in September this year.
Alzona said the four firms have purchased bid documents and that their bids will be opened on Monday.
“The bidding for new OMSC [operation and maintenance service contract] is set this Monday, August 3. There will be four bidders in the list,” she said.
The contract is good for a year and the state firm has approved a budget of P457.3 million, which will be sourced through its 2015 and 2016 Corporate Operating Budgets.
Prospective bidders for the OMSC will be subjected to open competitive bidding procedures using nondiscretionary “pass or fail” criterion in accordance with Republic Act 9184, the Government Procurement
Reform Act.
“Through this procurement project, PSALM hopes to ensure the continued maintenance and operation of the MTPP as a security plant for the Luzon Grid,” Alzona added.
The MTPP is composed of two units in Pililia, Rizal. Unit 1 is a 300-megawatt (MW) unit with a once-through type boiler, while unit 2 is a 350-MW unit fitted with a conventional boiler. The power facility was last rehabilitated in 1995 by the Korea Electric Power Corp. under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-manage-maintain agreement.
STX Marine also earlier won the contract to rehabilitate unit 1. Alzona earlier said that the rehabilitation works were finished early July.
Now that Malaya 1 has been rehabilitated, the entire power facility can run at its full capacity of 65 MW. “There will be an additional 300 MW to be used as reserved. Malaya, being a must-run plant, operates at time of plant outages, Malampaya in particular,” added Alzona.
The Department of Energy earlier designated the MTPP as a must-run unit in order to address any instability or supply deficiency that may occur as a result of sudden unavailability of any of the operating power plants in the grid.