Indonesia looking for investors in 7 power plants

Perusahaan Listrik Negara is opening tenders for seven coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 1,650 megawatts.

Investors in the independent power producer projects are expected to sell their output to PLN as part of a nine-year contract.

PLN spokesman Bambang Dwiyanto said the company expects to save up to Rp 27 trillion or $3.1 billion once the plants are operational as electricity from coal-fired plants is less expensive than that of diesel-powered plants. He added taht this will also lead to less subsidies for power.

Bambang further explained that PLN expects to start receiving electricity from the plants by 2013.

“We will provide the land, fuel and transmission lines. Also, we will buy the electricity,” he pointed out.

Each of the seven plants is outside Java island. The tenders include a 300 MW power plant in Tarahan, Lampung; a 120 MW plant in West Nusa Tenggara; a 30 MW plant in Papua; a 300 MW plant in Riau; a 450 MW plant in Kuala Tanjung, North Sumatra; a 300 MW plant in Teluk Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; and a 150 MW plant in Asam-Asam, South Kalimantan.

PLN expects to increase the percentage of households that have access to electricity from 65 percent currently to 91 percent by 2019 and 100 percent by 2020.

Indonesia’s power grid has 31,000 MW of available power to supply the nation’s 240 million people with electricity.