By Lenie Lectura
STX Marine of Korea has finally completed the rehabilitation of Unit 1 of the Malaya Thermal Power Plant Complex (MTPP), the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said.
“It was completed last week,” PSALM Officer in Charge and Vice President for Finance Lourdes Alzona said on Monday, adding that “testing and commissioning, in coordination with NGCP [National Grid Corp. of the Philippines]” was done, also on Monday.
The MTPP consists of two units. 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.
Now that Malaya1 has been rehabilitated, the entire power facility can run at its full capacity of 650 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,” Alzona added.
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.
The rehab should have been finished on March 3, or within 90 days from issuance of the Notice to Proceed to STX Marine, which bagged the contract with P80.63-million bid offer.
The delay dragged on because major parts of the facility sustained extensive damage and STX Marine had to send parts to Korea for repair.
The plant’s previous contractor, Salcon Power Corp., was the one that suggested that an overhaul must be done to address the cause of excessive vibration.
The overhaul covers the replacement of air-preheater intermediate and cold-end heating elements; major inspection of automatic voltage regulator; prevention maintenance of distributed control system; overhauling of circulating water pump; among others.
STX Marine is also the current operation and maintenance contractor for the facility. However, its contract is set to expire in September this year. As such, the PSALM has started the bidding process for MTPP in Pililla, Rizal.
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.
Interested bidders can already purchase a complete set of the bidding documents from PSALM office for P50,000.
The PSALM has scheduled a pre-bid conference on July 17, while submission of bids is set on July 29. The opening and evaluation of bids will follow thereafter.
Prospective bidders for the Operations and Management Service Contract 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 Malaya TPP as a security plant for the Luzon Grid,” Alzona added.