Bosawa to build coal-fired power plant in South Sulawesi

Bosawa Group plans to build a coal-fired power plant, with a capacity of 200 megawatt in Jeneponto regency, South Sulawesi to cope with the shortage of electricity supply in the province, Kompas reported on Saturday.

Aksa Mahmud, the owner of the business group, said in Makassar on Friday that the company would allocate investment funds of about Rp 1.6 trillion to build the coal fired power plant.

He said that the construction of the power plant would be carried out in two stages beginning in 2005. "In the first stage, the company will build power plant with a capacity of 100 MW, while in the second stage, the capacity will be increased to 200 MW," he said.

According to Aksa, the first stage of the construction would be completed in 2007. "We hope the entire construction of the power plant would be completed in 2008 or in 2009," he added.

He said that about 70 MW of electricity supply from the new power plant would be sold to Bosawa Group's affiliated companies for 60 U.S. cent per MW, another 70 MW will be supplied to PT Sement Bosowa's second plant which will also be built this year and the remaining 130 MW would be sold to state owned electricity company PLN.(*)