The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) has reopened the sale process for two of its power plant packages — the 110-megawatt (MW) Power Barge (PB) 118 and the decommissioned 108-MW Aplaya and 22.3-MW General Santos diesel power plant package — with the issuance of their respective Invitations to Bid (ITBs).

PSALM also looks forward to closing the sale of the Panay and Bohol Diesel Power Plants which were bid out as a package on 12 November 2008. SPC Power Corp. (SPC) gave the highest bid of USD5.86 million for the package.

The turnover of the power plants to SPC would bring electricity consumers closer to a regime of open access and retail competition where consumers have the power of choice over reasonably priced electricity.

At the same time, proceeds from the sale of the power plants will be used to pay a portion of National Power Corporation’s obligations, thereby relieving the government and the Filipino taxpayers of a huge debt burden.

Continuing its privatization program for 2009, PSALM published the ITB for the PB 118 power plant’s second round of bidding starting 17 March until 19 March 2009. Investors wanting to participate in the bid must submit a Letter of Interest (LOI) to PSALM not later than 5 p.m. of 26 March 2009. Interested parties must then execute a Confidentiality Agreement and an Undertaking with PSALM, and pay a non-refundable participation fee of USD2,000 not later than 27 March 2009.

The Bid Submission Deadline for the PB 118 sale is set on 28 May 2009.

PSALM held the first round of bidding for the PB 118 power facility on 08 October 2008. It was, however, declared a failure after only one bidder submitted the Documentary Deliverables.

Commissioned in August 1994, the PB 118 power facility is a 100-MW barge-mounted bunker-fired diesel generating power station located in Barangay San Roque, Maco, Compostela Valley in Mindanao.

The second round of bidding for the decommissioned Aplaya and General Santos diesel power plants, which will still be sold as a package, will open on 18 March 2009.

To be published in local newspapers until Friday (20 March 2009), the ITB indicates that interested parties have until 24 March 2009 to submit their LOIs.

Prospective investors must execute a Confidentiality Agreement and Undertaking with PSALM, and pay a non-refundable participation fee of USD1,000 on or before 25 March 2009.

First opened on 03 September 2008, the bidding for the Aplaya-General Santos power plant package was eventually declared a failure because only one bidder submitted the documentary requirements.

The Aplaya diesel plant in Misamis Oriental consists of six 18-MW units which were commissioned between 1979 and 1982. The General Santos Diesel Power Plant in South Cotabato, on the other hand, comprises three 7.44-MW turbines that ran on either bunker or diesel fuel.