THE Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) is preparing new terms for the bidding of the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya thermal power plant, giving rise to the possibility that the facility will attract other interested bidders.

“[The bidding] is deferred until further notice,” said PSALM officer-in-charge Lourdes S. Alzona in a phone interview after the agency withdrew the schedule to bid out the project on Thursday, March 30.

She said the agency has yet to finalize a new schedule for the bidding while it was evaluating options for the power plant. The deferral came after the Department of Energy (DoE) set a new condition to privatize the asset: its conversion into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said last month that Malaya’s output must support the need for standby capacity, thus the decision to set the condition.

Read more here.