PGE to spend $130 million this year for geothermal development
Saturday, February 21 2009 - 03:04 AM WIB
PGE?s president director Abadi Poernomo said on Friday that the company would receive a bridging fund from Pertamina to cover its spending before it received a soft loan from international finance agencies such as the World Bank, KfW of Germany and JICA of Japan.
The company is currently developing two geothermal plants each a capacity of 2 x 55 MW in Ulu Belu, Lampung and in Lumut Balai, Muara Enim, South Sumatera.
In addition, PGE would also expand the company?s Lehendong geothermal plant in Sulawesi by building two more units (units 5 and 6) with total capacity of 40 MW. The expansion project will require investment of up to $200 million and is expected to be completed in 2012, he said.
Abadi explained KfW was interested to finance the geothermal project from upstream through downstream and the loan could be disbursed as part of a government-to-government or commercial agreements.
He said a geothermal project could only become feasible economically, if state owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) is willing to buy the power at the price of between 7 and 9 U.S. cents per Kwh.
PGE currently has 15 geothermal concessions across Indonesia and operates geothermal power plants in Kamojang, West Java; Sibayak, North Sumatra and Lahendong, North Sulawesi which have a combined installed capacity of 252 MW . (godang)