DOE halts sale of Malaya plant

The Department of Energy (DOE) has stopped the privatization of the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya Thermal Power Plant (TPP) in Rizal as the agency eyes a deeper study before proceeding to sell the asset, a ranking energy official said.

The DOE’s Electric Power Industry Management Bureau (EPIMB) has come up with a memo to conduct a study on the power facility, which will be approved by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, DOE assistant secretary Leonido Pulido said.

“We feel that the status quo is safer until we finish the study. The power bureau was given a week to come up with that memo, and that memo has to be approved by the secretary,” he said.

Conducting a thorough study would, in turn, further delay the privatization of the Malaya plant, he said.

“I think our stand is that the delay is reasonable. It would be better to be delayed until we come up with a firm policy regarding Malaya,” Pulido said.

“We don’t have an immediate privatization schedule in mind precisely because that study is required before a firm policy is established,” he said.

State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the entity created by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to privatize government-owned assets, originally set the Malaya auction on March 8, 2017 on an “as is, where is” basis.

The sale has been reset to March 30, 2017 and then deferred until further notice to take into consideration the DOE policy to ensure sufficiency of the power supply in the Luzon grid.

PSALM was directed to include in the terms of reference Malaya plant’s conversion from running on diesel fuel to coal or liquefied natural gas to become a baseload plant.

“That’s part of the discussions now, whether it’s DOE, PSALM or the investor. But right now, we’re leaning towards DOE footing the bill,” Pulido said.