Govt seeking funds for five coal-fired power plants

The government is seeking funds for the construction of five coal-fired power plants in Java, Lampung and North Sumatra as part of its crash program to add the nation's power supply by about 10,000 megawatt.

The new coal-fired power plants are Jawa Timur 1 (2 x 350 MW) in Pacitan East Java, Banten 3 (3 x 315 MW) in Teluk Naga, Jawa Barat 2 (3 x 315 MW) in Pelabuhan Ratu, West Java, Lampung ( 2 x 100 MW) and North Sumatra 2 (2 x 200 MW).

The head of the government's power sector development team, Yogo Pratama, said the Ministry of Finance had sent invitation letters to a number of international banks to take part in the tender for the financing the five power projects.

He said that the tender would be carried out both for funds in rupiah and other currencies. The rupiah funds for the projects are expected to reach Rp 5.84 trillion, while funds in other currencies will reach about $1.55 billion.

Yogo said the tender aimed to secure loans of up to $1.85 billion, or about 85 percent of the total needed to build the projects.

"We hope to launch the tender by the end of March," he said, adding that the Ministry of Finance was expected to name the winners of the tender within three months from now.

PLN has named the consortium of Dongfang Electric Corp. and PT. Dalle Energy to build the Pacitan and Teluk Naga power plants and the consortium of Shanghai Electric and Maxima Infrastructure to build Pelabuhan Ratu.

Meanwhile, PLN has named the consortium of PT. Adhikarya and Jiangxi Electric Power Engineering to build the Lampung power plant and the consortium of Guangdong Power Engineering, PT. Bagus Karya and PT. Nincec Multi Dimensi for the North Sumatra power plant project. (godang)