Korindo to develop 10 MW biomass power plant in Pangkalan Bun

By Cepi Setiadi

PT BioGreen Power Kobar, a subsidiary of Korindo Group, is planning to develop a biomass power plant with the capacity of 10 MW at Pangkalan Bun, Kota Waringin Barat Regency, Central Kalimantan Province.

Geunhyo An, Director of the company told Petromindo.com on Wednesday that the project will use mangium (Acacia mangium) and pelita (Eucalyptus pellita) wood as the feed stock.

He said the company has proposed the project to the directorate general of new renewable energy and energy conservation (EBTKE) at Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

"We expect to obtain license from EBTKE this month and sign the power purchase agreement (PPA) with PLN (state owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara) next year. After that, we?ll start the development of the project," he said adding investment for the project may reach US$20 million or around $2 million per MW.

"We shall develop the power plant by ourselves. We thus far have no plan to cooperate with other parties," he said adding that the company will use South Korean or Japanese technology for the power plant.

To provide feedstock for the power plant, the company is planting mangium and pelita trees on about 70,000 ha of lands.

"We will need around 120.000 tons of biomass per year for the power plant and it is not a problem since we have abundant mangium and pelita trees," he said adding that Korindo Group is experienced in developing such power plant.

"We already have a 7.3 MW biomass power plant which was built to support our operation in Pangkalan Bun. The excess power is sold to PLN," he said.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon