PLN asked to provide power supply for smelters

Minister of Industry MS Hidayat has urged state electricity company PLN to provide power supply for mineral ore processing plants which will be built in the country within the next few years.

?PLN should be able to meet the electricity requirement for the smelter operation,? Hidayat was quoted as saying by Investor Daily during a discussion on investment in mining downstream industry in Jakarta on Tuesday

He said that if PLN is unable to provide the power supply, an investor would be expected to build their own power plants.

Hidayat said that the government has planned to provide fiscal incentives as compensation to investors who intend to build their own power plants. ?I have asked the finance minister to provide fiscal incentives. If investors receive incentives, they will be able to build both smelters and power plants,? he added.

Meanwhile, the vice chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Natsir Mansyur said that PLN had committed to provide power supply of up to 1,500 MW for 40 smelters. The smelters will be builr in East Java and South Sulawesi beginning 2013.

PLN?s president Nur Pamudji has encouraged investors to build processing plants in East Java because the electricity company has the capacity to meet the electricity needs in the province. For areas outside East Java, it would take time because PLN should first build power plants to provide the power supply. (*)