Malaysia, Indonesia resume power grid link talk

Malaysia and Indonesia have resumed discussions on building the first interconnection between their national power transmission grids, an official with Malaysia's state power utility Tenaga Nasional Bhd. said Thursday.

Discussions between Tenaga and Indonesia's state utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, or PLN, on building the interconnection stalled in 1998 due to the financial crisis that hit the region.

"We are currently talking to PLN about getting it implemented," a Tenaga executive was quoted by Dow Jones as saying.

Tenaga and PLN are reviewing and discussing the technical details of constructing the 50-kilometer underwater cable that will connect Peninsular Malaysia's transmission grid to Indonesia's Sumatra island.

"There's an agreement to build the connection," he said. "We just have to figure out how to build it and the costs involved."

The Tenaga official said neither side had determined a target date for completion of the link.

Construction of the interconnection between Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra is one step in a proposed power grid linking members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean.

According to the Asean Center for Energy, the initial plan for the Malaysia-Sumatra link involved the construction of a cable across the Strait of Malacca between Dumai, Sumatra and Port Dickson, located on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Another proposal involved linking the grid in Sumatra to Kertih, located in eastern Peninsular Malaysia.

The Tenaga official declined to comment on the cost of the project, but said it would be significantly more expensive than the cost of Malaysia's connections with Singapore and Thailand because of the length of the subsea cables required.

Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand's transmission grids are currently connected by a new 300-megawatt link. The link, which is between Khlong Ngae in Southern Thailand and Gurun in Malaysia, was commissioned late last year.

Transmission grids of Malaysia and Singapore have been connected since 1985.

Pian Sukro, Tenaga's president and chief executive, said earlier this month that Tenaga and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand will sign a cross-border power purchase agreement in March.

He added that Tenaga is also in talks to create a similar power sales agreement with Singapore.(*)