PAL set to develop floating power plant

State-owned shipyard company PT PAL is planning to develop a floating power plant to meet the electricity needs of people in remote islands as well as to support the government?s program of developing a combined 35,000 MW power plants over the next five years.

Executive Director of PT PAL, M Firmansyah Arifin was quoted by Antaranews.com as saying Friday that the company was still waiting to know how much electricity the state-owned power company PLN would need from the plant.

"We set up a floating power plant in 1996 but it was of low capacity. If PLN asks for a plant of higher capacity, we are well prepared because the foundation is already there for it," Arifin said.

Arifin explained that technically, constructing a floating power plant was not difficult for PT PAL as it has reliable resources.

"A floating power plant made by PT PAL was functional in some areas such as in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami and also in some remote islands in Indonesia, which are beyond the reach of the electricity grid," he said.

Earlier, PLN had rented a floating Gas Power Plant with a capacity of 120 MW from Turkey for five years, with a contract value of Rp1,850 per kWh. (*)