Minister to issue new regulation on LNG import for power plants
Thursday, January 26 2017 - 03:53 AM WIB
Petromindo|Dasir
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is set to soon issue a new regulation on the import of LNG specifically for power plants amid problems suffered by some gas-fired power plant projects to secure affordable gas.
Director General of Oil and Gas at the ministry IGN Wiratmaja Puja said on Wednesday that companies wishing to import LNG will be required to have own LNG facilities such as storage and regasification.
He added that the price of LNG to be imported must also be cheaper than LNG produced at home.
Wiratmaja said that the ministry will also later issue a new regulation on the import of gas for other industries. The government announced on Tuesday that it was considering to introduce a policy to reopen import of gas from cheaper sources such as the Middle East to help quickly bring down gas price at home particularly for selected domestic manufacturing industries to help improve their competitiveness.
Meanwhile, Kontan quoted Director of Planning at state-owned electricity firm PT PLN Nicke Widyawati as saying that the company was ready to import LNG as long as the price is cheaper than LNG produced at home. She said that the planned move to import cheaper LNG would help reduce electricity production cost.
According to the ministry, gas-fired power plants currently account for about 20 percent of installed power capacity, while coal is still dominating accounting for more than 50 percent.
According to the 2016-2025 electricity procurement business plant of PLN (or RUPTL), new power plants capacity to be developed during the period is projected to reach 23,186 MW, including 4,271 MW from gas-fired power plants, and 18,915 from combined-cycle power plants. (*)