Announcement on winner of tender for two coal fired-power plant projects delayed
Thursday, December 21 2006 - 02:09 AM WIB
Suralaya and Paiton Baru coal-fired power plants are include on the 600 MW ? 700 MW class.
PLN?s director for human resources development and organization Djuanda Nugraha Ibrahim said that the consultation meeting between PLN and the Team of Fast Track Program scheduled for yesterday would be delayed until tomorrow (Friday).
?The consultation schedule had to be delayed because most of the team members were out of town. The meeting is rescheduled and it will be held on Friday (tomorrow),? he was quoted by Antara News Agency as saying.
PLN planned to have a consultation meeting following a protest lodged by bidders regarding the result of the tender in which China National Technical Import & Export (CNTIC) and Harbin Power were selected as the prospective winner for Suralaya and Paiton coal-fired power plants respectively. The result of the tender was announced by PLN?s auction committee last month.
Earlier, head of the Fast Track Program Team Yogo Pratomo asserted that the team would make a decision on the winner of the tender for the construction of the two coal-fired power plants based on the objections and answers from PLN. Before Friday (tomorrow) all matters would be totally solved and winner can be announced, he said.
The decision made by PLN to select CNTIC as the prospective winner of Suralaya coal-fired power plant was protested by other bidders, namely Dongfang Electric Corporation and Dale Energy Consortium.
A source that knew the tender for Paiton Baru coal-fired power plant regretted the tender assessment team that did not take delivery time into account in determining the prospective tender winner.
According to the source, one of the bidders proposed delivery time eight month faster than 36 months proposed earlier but it turned out the team did not take it into consideration in determining prospective tender winner.
?Based on data and calculation (prepared by one of the bidders), the delivery time which is eight month quicker can save around US$400 million,? he said.
Meanwhile, director general for electricity and Energy Utilization of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry J. Purwono asserted that it was unnecessary for PLN to sell bonds to finance the construction of coal-fired power plant projects outside Java because the projects did not need huge funds.
He said that PLN has to finance only 30 percent of the project value and 70 percent will be prepared by engineering, procurement & construction companies.
?With only 30 percent of the total project value, PLN can seek funds from local banks,? he said. (*)