PLN asks govt to meet its promise to find gas suppliers for its power plants

State owned electricity company PLN has asked the government to fulfill its promise to find the gas suppliers for its three major combined cycled power plants including the Tambak Lorok power plant in Semarang, the Muara Tawar power plant in Jakarta and the Grati power plant in Gresik, East Java, Investor Daily reported on Monday.

PLN's spokesman Muljo Adji said in Jakarta last week that the government had promised to find the gas suppliers for the three power plants which were built in 1998 as part of the crash program to cope with the power crisis in Java.

"But up to now, there are no indication that the three power plants would soon get gas supply," he was quoted as saying. He added that the three power plants which were built with a technology enabling them to use both fuel and gas still used fuel because the gas supply promised by the government had never arrived.

He said that the three power plants were initially planned only to use fuel during the first year of their operation but the absence of the gas supply had forced them to use diesel oil until now.

"The increase in the diesel oil price to above Rp 5,000 per litter last year has brought a heavy financial burden to PLN. We therefore hope the government will be able to find the solution so that the three power plants would soon receive gas supply in order to reduce the operating costs," he added. (*)