PLN hopes court case won?t delay Cirebon power plant project
Friday, June 9 2017 - 01:40 AM WIB
Petromindo
State-owned electricity firm PT PLN hopes that the ongoing legal dispute over the1,000 MW PLTU Cirebon II coal-fired power plant project in Cirebon, West Java, would not cause serious delay in the completion of the key project.
PLN Procurement Director Supangkat Iwan Santoso said the company and the project developer can only wait for the final decision of the State Administrative Court over the case so that the project can quickly proceed as planned. ?We?re waiting for the final decision to proceed with the development of the project,? he said as quoted by Bisnis Indonesia Friday.
He said that once the final decision has been issued, the developer will speed up the construction of the project to help ensure that the initial completion target in 2020 can be reached.
Supangkat acknowledged that the legal case has prompted lenders including JBIC, Korea Eximbank, and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance to suspend the US$1.74 billion loans for the estimated $2.1 billion project.
Heru Dewanto, President Director of PT Cirebon Energi Prasarana (CEP), which owns the project, hoped the court to quickly issue final ruling on the case so that the project can proceed as planned. ?We hope the government to quickly resolve the problem relating to environmental permit so that the project can proceed as planned,? he told Bisnis Indonesia.
The State Administrative Court in West Java in April issued a ruling suspending the environmental permit for the project because it has not conformed with the Cirebon Regency 2011-2013 Spatial Zoning Plan (or RUTR).
According to the RUTR the project area should only be limited within the Astanajapura District, but it turns out to also extend to Mundu District. The West Java Provincial Administration has filed an appeal. CEP has previously said that the local government has made decision to allow the project to span three districts.
CEP is a consortium comprising of IDX-listed energy company PT Indika Energy Tbk, Marubeni Corporation, Samtan Co. Ltd, Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd, and Chubu Electric Power Co. Inc. (*)