BlackGold hopeful PPA for Riau-1 project to be signed soon
Friday, June 9 2017 - 12:44 PM WIB
SGX-listed BlackGold Natural Resources Limited is hopeful that power purchase agreement (PPA) for a planned coal-fired mine mouth power plant in Riau Province (called Riau-1 Project) will soon be signed by state-owned electricity firm PT PLN.
?We are very excited to learn that PLN is planning to sign power purchase agreements for several mine mouth power plants soon. As the Riau-1 Project could be one of the PPAs signed, we are hopeful that we will be appointed and look forward to kick-start the project soon,? said Philip Cecil Rickard, Chief Executive Officer of BlackGold in a statement Friday.
He was responding to an earlier statement made by PLN President Director Sofyan Basir that the company plans to sign this month PPAs for six mine mouth power plant projects with combined capacity of 1,500 MW in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Sofyan did not disclose the name of the six projects. Under a new Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No 19/2017, procurement of electricity from mine mouth power plant projects can now be made by PLN through direct appointment.
BlackGold said the Riau-1Project is listed as one of the planned mine mouth power plants in the 2017-2026 PLN electricity procurement business plan (or RUPTL), with commercial operation date expected to start in 2020.
BlackGold announced late in 2015 its Indonesian coal subsidiary PT Samantaka Batubara had entered into an agreement with China Huadian Engineering Co Ltd to cooperate in the development, construction, operation and maintenance of a 2x300 MW coal-fired power plant project in Riau Province. The government later on asked PLN to convert several planned conventional coal-fired power plant projects in Sumatra including the Riau-1 project into mine mouth power plant projects.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak