PLN confirms Bakrie get Tanjung Jati A power plant project

State owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has confirmed that Indonesian conglomerate Bakrie Group and its partners would develop the Tanjung Jati A power project.

?We shall not tender the project? PLN?s director Djuanda Nugraha Ibrahim said on Thursday.

The Tanjung Jati A project was initially planned to be developed by Bakrie in partnership with one of Soeharto?s daughters years ago, Tomen and Britain's National Power but it along with many other power projects was halted due to financial crises that hit Indonesia in 1997. Bakrie has a 20 percent stake in the US$1.4 billion project.

While many of the owners of suspended projects took legal actions against PLN and Indonesian government, Tanjung Jati A owners did not take such action after PLN promised to allow them to resume the project once the crisis was over and the domestic power demand picked up again.

Bakrie and its partners initially planned to develop the 1320-MW coal fired power plant in Jepara, Central Java, at the location where the giant Tanjung Jati B power plant has been developed.

Djuanda, however, said the project would be ?relocated to somewhere in West Java.? PLN?s spokesman Muldjo Adji said the project will be most likely developed in Cirebon.

He said PLN was negotiating with the consortium on the power purchase agreement (PPA) and expected to be concluded the negotiation later this year.

?The PPA is expected to be settled this year so that the development of the power plant can be realized as soon as possible,? he said.

Earlier, Bakrie & Brothers said the firm through its subsidiary Bakrie Power planned to raise US$220 million funds to finance the development of the power plant. (Godang)