THE Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said on Tuesday that only two of the four interested firms pursued their bids for the one-year operation and maintenance service contract for the Malaya Thermal Power Plant Complex (MTPP). “Only two bidders submitted bids, but there is no info on their bid amounts,” PSALM President Lourdes Alzona said in a text message. The four interested are SPC Malaya Power Corp., STX Marine Services Co. Ltd., OGAS Solutions (Thailand) Ltd. and Kepco KPS Philippines.
Alzona said only STX Marine Services and SPC Malaya Power submitted their respective bids. The agency has yet to review their bids before announcing which of the two will operate and maintain the power facility.
“The bidding held [Monday] is still subject to the post-qualification of bidders who submitted bids. There is no winning bidder yet,” she said.
STX Marine is the current contractor for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the facility. However, its contract is set to expire in September this year.
The contract is good for a year and the state firm has approved a budget of P457.3 million, that will be sourced through its 2015 and 2016 Corporate Operating Budgets.
The bidders for the OMSC were subjected to open competitive bidding procedures using a 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. The MTPP is composed of two units in Pililia, Rizal.
Unit 1 is a 300-megawatt 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 unit1. Alzona earlier said the rehabilitation works were finished early July.
Now that Malaya1 has been rehabilitated, the entire power facility can run at its full capacity of 650MW.
“There will be an additional 300 MW to be used as reserve. Malaya, being a must-run plant, operates at the 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.