Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia plan to build power grid

Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia have agreed to build three interconnected power transmission networks using up to one billion US dollars in investment.

 

Indonesian energy and mineral resources minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the agreements, signed on Thursday at the sidelines of an meeting in of energy ministries of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), was part of the ASEAN Power Grid project.

 

Under the agreement, Indonesia, which is represented by state-run electricity company PLN, and its partners from the two neighboring countries would jointly build three power transmission lines connecting Sarawak in Malaysia with Pontianak in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan; Penang in Malaysia with Riau in the Indonesian island of Sumatra; and Singapore with Batam and Bintan in Riau Islands of Indonesia.

 

In the short-term, PLN would use the cross-border transmission networks to buy electricity from either Singapore or Malaysia to cope with the electricity shortages in Sumatra and Kalimantan , the minister told The Jakarta Post.

 

In the long-term, PLN, which is currently engaged in a crash program to provide an additional power supply of 10,000 megawatts by the end of 2009, may be able to use the facilities to sell its power surplus to the two neighboring countries.

 

"In the future, we could take advantage of gas production from the Natuna gas block to build a power plant in Batam. The electricity from the island could be sold to Singapore ," PLN executive Syaiful B. Ibrahim said, adding that the company could also build a coal-fired power plant in Riau, where coal reserves are abundant. (*)