House to summon PLN over deal with Paiton, other power producers

The House of Representatives will summon the country's power tariff restructuring team, and the president of state electricity firm PLN Kuntoro Mangkusubroto over its "interim agreement" with Paiton I and Paiton II, and other power producers, according to the evening Suara Pembaruan in its Thursday edition.

The paper quoted commission VIII legislator Husni Thamrin as saying that the interim agreement had forced PLN to pay up to Rp 8 trillion (Rp 4.2 trillion plus US$535.66 million) to the power producers this year.

Husni said that PLN must pay the power producers although the company had yet to "utilize" the power from the independent power producers.

He said that during the recent meeting with the House, it was agreed that PLN would only pay for the power which had been used by the company.

Husni also said that Kuntoro admitted during the meeting that he had signed interim agreement with several power producers, but due to confidentiality the contain could not be disclosed.

Husni said that the House was now demanding PLN to be transparent over the agreement to ensure that it didn't violate an earlier agreement with the House over power purchase tariff.

Suara Pembaruan said that Kuntoro signed the interim agreement with president of Paiton Energy Corp (PEC) Ronald P. Landry.

The paper obtained the document of the agreement, in which PLN would start installing the payment to Paiton on March and by December the total amount paid by PLN would reach $16 million. (*)