Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. will rebid the 650-megawatt Malaya Thermal Power Plant, along with its land in Barangay Malaya, Pililia, Rizal on March 13, an official said Wednesday.
PSALM president Irene Joy Besido-Garcia said the submission of bids for Malaya privatization was originally scheduled on Dec. 14, but was deferred to March next year.
“In view of the failure of the fourth round of bidding for the third party advisor [to appraise Malaya], PBAC was constrained to move the deadline for submission of bid to March 13,” Garcia said.
PSALM’s bids and awards committee previously prequalified four bidders based on the documentary deliverables they submitted, including AC Energy Inc., D.M. Wenceslao & Associates Inc., DMCI Power Corp., and FGen Reliable Energy Holdings Inc.
There were originally 11 companies that expressed interest but only the four groups submitted the requirements.
Garcia said that for the selection of the third-party advisor for the privatization of the Malaya power plant, PSALM set new timeline for another round of procurement.
PSALM sent the request for proposals early this month. “If the procurement of the Malaya consultancy will be successful, their output will be submitted on 13 March 2019, the same date for the bid submission and setting of the reserve price by the PSALM board for Malaya privatization,” she said.
Bidding for the consultancy for the privatization process was declared a failure twice, while a request for proposal is now ongoing. PSALM said the bidders needed more time to move forward with the privatization.
“We lacked time but we had to bite the bullet and revise to give longer time for bidders. That’s why we moved the bidding,” Garcia said.
PSALM is tasked to manage the assets and liabilities of National Power Corp. as mandated under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
The Malaya plant consists of a 300-MW unit with a once-through type boiler and a 350-MW unit fitted with a conventional boiler. It is one of the remaining big-ticket energy projects the government has yet to privatize.
PSALM was supposed to bid out the facility in March 2017, but it was put on hold after the Energy Department decided to include in the bidding the option to convert the plant into a facility running on liquefied natural gas. This plan did not push through.