Govt considering integration of HTI and power plant
Wednesday, August 19 2015 - 03:32 AM WIB
The ministry of forestry and environment?s Sustainable Forest Development Director General Ida Bagus Putera Parthama said that his ministry is studying the possibility of allowing the integral development project. The integration of HTI and power plants is believed to increase the licences for the use of forest produce of woods (IUPHHK).
?We?re sounding out the possibility of issuing a joint ministerial regulation. It will allow HTI companies to build power plants and electricity companies to develop own HTI,? he told Bisnis in Jakarta on Friday, August 14.
He said that as demand for the renewable energy has been continually growing, such integration will increase the interests of investors for developing the HTI. The government has allocated a total area of 2 million hectares for the HTI development until 2019. But so far, there have been only 10 companies which have proposed to get HTI licenses with a total area of 500,000 ha.
Until now, he said, the forestry and environment ministry has been continually accelerating the development of forest for energy. He pointed out that now there are 30 companies as the holders of IUPHHK-HTI licences with total concession areas of 1.2 million hectares which are committed to the policy.
Those companies already expressed their interests include PT Hutan Ketapang Industri in West Kalimantan; PT Oceanias Timber Products in East Kutai, East Kalimantan; and PT Bangka Nesia in Bangka Belitung.
?But we understand that the challenge facing the developers of power plants is how to determine the feed in tariff with the state-owned electricity company PT PLN. But in order to solve the problem, we?re studying the possibility of providing subsidy through the Forest Development Financing Service Center (P3H),? he said. (*)