Muara Tawar power plant to operate in October

State owned oil and gas company PLN will soon begin the construction of the Muara Tawar gas-power plant in a bid to cope with the continued shortage in the power supply into the Java and Bali transmission network, Neraca reported on Thursday.

Basuki Prayitno, a general manager of PLN?s distribution unit, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the new power plant was expected to start operation in October, next year. "We are still conducting the feasibility study on the development of the new power plant," he said.

The development of the Muara Tawar gas-power plant which will have a generating capacity of 6X100 MW, is part of the electricity company?s program in coping with the shortage of the power supply in the country.

The power supply in the country has suffered a serious problem due to a delay in the construction of several power plants following the country?s worst ever crisis which started to hit the country in late 1997. Some of the power projects have been continued but they are still unable to cope with the problem.

According to PLN, if there is no significant additional supply, there will an electricity crisis in the country in 2003. (*)