Four companies expressed interest to bid for the 650-megawatt Malaya thermal power plant in Pililla, Rizal, an official of Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. said Wednesday.
The four companies met the 5 p.m. deadline on Dec. 20 set by PSALM for the Malaya plant assets being offered for privatization.
PSALM said it received four letters of interest from APT Global Inc., Phinma Energy Corp., Riverbend Consolidated Mining Corp. and AC Energy Holdings Inc.
“The bidding is scheduled on March 8, 2017,” Lourdes Alzona, chair PSALM’s privatization, bids and awards committee told reporters.
PSALM earlier said the power plant would be privatized on an “as is, where is” basis. The agency gave interested bidders until Dec. 20 to submit their letter of interest.
“The committee reserves the right to accept or reject any interested party or bidder or proposal or bids therefrom, or any part thereof, and/or to waive any defects contained therein and accept the offer advantageous to the government, without offering any reason whatsoever,” Alzona said.
The bidders can conduct due diligence on the assets from Dec. 6 to March 6, 2017 while a bid conference would be held on Jan. 6, 2017. Actual bid submission is scheduled on March 8, 2017.
PSALM manages the assets and liabilities of National Power Corp. as mandated by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
“There is on-going evaluation for the Malaya plant, and if the board’s clearance to privatize Malaya plant is secured, PSALM could start working on the bidding documents this year,” Alzona said earlier.
PSALM is mandated to privatize the remaining power assets of the government such as the 700-MW Agus-Pulangi hydro plants in Mindanao and the privatization of the IPP contracts of the Steag power plant in Mindanao.
PSALM also plans to bid out the 728-MW Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan hydro power plant and the 140-MW Casecnan hydro plant, subject to the instructions of the new administration.
The Malaya thermal power plant is presently being used as a security asset and is tasked to run by the government when power supply is tight.
The previous administration designated the Malaya power plant 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.