Canadian firm mulls building $250 million hydro power plant in S. Sulawesi

A Canadian investor is interested in building a 200-megawatts (MW) capacity hydro electricity plant in South Sulawesi, the Bisnis Indonesia newspaper reported in its Thursday edition.

The project will cost around US$250 million.

Canadian company Excort, -- which has a lot of experience in building hydro power plants in various countries -- is interested in building the hydro electricity plant in South Sulawesi, Nicolaus Lepagel, a staff member of Canadian Embassy in Jakarta, said.

“As per the plan, the power plant will be built in three phases, each phase will have 67 MW capacity,” Lepagel said in Makassar when he met South Sulawesi deputy governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo on Wednesday.

Excort will conduct a feasible study in September with the financial assistance of Canadian government, Lepagel said.

The project will tap the water potential at Tana Toraja and Enrekang regencies, he said.

If everything goes according to the plan, the project will begin its operations in 2007, Lepagel added. (*)