Pertamina-PLN must invest $300 million for Dieng geothermal power plant

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that the government would ask state electricity company PT PLN and state oil and gas company Pertamina to invest a total of US$300 million to revive the 60-megawatt Dieng geothermal power plant in Central Java, and improve its capacity to 3 X 360 megawatts, Suara Karya daily reported on Friday.

Nevertheless, Purnomo said the government also planned to appoint or establish a new company to continue the development of the stalled Dieng power plant, and would assume all obligations and investment costs for the project.

"As long as the government has not decided on another business entity to continue the management of Dieng power plant, we will ask PLN and Pertamina to bear the investment cost," he said after having a coffee morning at his office.

Separately, Director of Electricity and Energy Usage Luluk Sumiarso said that the Dieng project could be operated within a two-year period. However for future interests, the capacity of Dieng plant would be boosted to 3 X 360 MW. And this would need additional investment of $300 million.

Meanwhile, PLN president Eddie Widiono said that his company had the interests to see the Dieng plant to operate soon, so that the potential losses from the idle capacity could be minimized.

"We want that the power plant could be operated soon so that it would bring in income for PLN," Eddie said. (*)