Dwi Artha to build power plant in Balikpapan

PT Dwi Artha International, a company owned by local investors, will soon build a combined cycle power plant in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan to meet the surge in the electricity demand in the province, Bisnis Indonesia daily reported on Saturday

The company?s president director Bambang Notodarmodjo in Balikpapan said that the company would invest about US$80 million in the new power plant, which could use gas and coal as its fuel.

For the first stage, the power plant would have a capacity of 10 MW but the capacity would be expanded to 100 MW by the year 2004. "We hope to operate at a full capacity by 2004," he was quoted as saying.

Like in other parts of the country, East Kalimantan, particularly in Balikpapan, Samarinda and Tengarong suffer a shortage of power supply. According to data provided by state electricity company PLN, the province needs at least 30 MW of power supply to meet the surge in demand both from household and industrial users.

"With the support of the Samarinda administration and local legislators, we are optimistic that the power project will run as expected," he said.

Balikpapan mayor Imdaad Hamid said that Unocal Indonesia, which operates oil and gas fields in the province, had expressed its commitment to allocate part of its gas for the new power plant. (*)