PJB deserves to develop Paiton III and IV projects: House member

Ramson Siagian, a member of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission VII in charge of mining and energy, has supported the request of PT Pembangkit Jawa Bali (PJB), the subsidiary of state-owned power firm PT PLN,to develop the Paiton III and IV power projects, Koran Tempo reported on Monday.

Ramson said PJB deserved to develop the two power plants because being a subsidiary of PLN. Its involvement in the project would make the government's task to determine the country's power pricing policy be much easier, he added.

Besides PJB, Paiton Energy and Chinese company China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export (CEMC) have also proposed to PLN to build the third and fourth power units of the Paiton power.

Paiton Energy offered PLN to sell the electricity to be produced from the third and fourth power plants at US$0.0457 Kwh, but PLN said that the proposed price was still too high. The Chinese company, meanwhile, offered to sell its electricity to PLN at $0.028 per Kwh but no decisions had not been made.

Under the existing regulation, PLN as the sole distributor of the country's electricity buys the electricity supply from private companies, in addition to the supply provided by PJB and its other subsidiaries. (*)