PLN agrees to increase C. Sulawesi power selling price
Wednesday, May 19 2010 - 02:41 AM WIB
PLN's president director Dahlan Iskan said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the government?s policy which prohibited PLN from buying electricity from independent power producer at a price exceeding Rp 500 (1US$ = Rp 9,180) per kilowatt hour (kWh) had, for example, hampered the company?s efforts to settle the power crisis in Palu, Central Sulawesi.
Speaking during a hearing with members of the House of Representatives (DPR), Dahlan said that the price cap had led to the stoppage of the 2 x 15 MW Tawaeli coal-fired power in Palu because the price paid by PLN to buy the power from the power plant was still too low to meet its operating costs.
The Independent power producer (IPP), PT Pusaka Jaya Palu Power is the operator of 2 x 15 MW Tawaeli coal-fired power.
?Thanks God, the price cap had been removed,? he said, adding that with the removal of the price restriction, PLN will be able to settle the price problem. ?We have agreed to raise the price for the power supply from the Tawaeli plant from Rp 500 to Rp 750 per kWh,? he said,
He hoped that the new contract with a new price could soon be signed so that by the end of June, the power plant could resume operation again. The closure of the power plant has cause prolonged power blackouts in many parts of Central Sulawesi, especially in its capital Palu.
Besides the pricing problem, the seizure of power plants by banks because of debt problem also hampered the operation of new power plants in eastern Indonesia.
In Mataram, West Nusa Tanggara, an independent power plant with a capacity of 20 MW has been seized by a bank due to the debt problem, Dahlan said. ?We have asked the bank to allow the power plant to continue operation, while negotiations on the credit problem are underway,? he said. (bernard)