PLN hopes to complete negotiations on stalled IPP projects in August

State owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) is hoping that the renegotiations on 25 power plant projects which have been stalled since 2008 will be completed in August this year.

Following a meeting with Vice President Boediono in Jakarta on Friday, PLN's president director Dahlan Iskan said renegotiations on the stalled power projects which begun early this year were almost completed.

?The problems related to 15 stalled power plant projects had been completed. So we hope the renegotiations on the other 10 could be completed within two weeks,? he said adding that once the renegotiations were completed, the projects need to be "verified" by the state comptroller BPKP before being proposed to the energy and mineral resource ministry for approval.

?We hope all the problems related to the stalled power projects could be settled in August,? he added.

About 65 small and medium-scale power projects awarded to independent power producers (IPPs) in 2008 have been stalled because the IPPs felt the purchasing prices agreed on by PLN was too low for them to continue the projects.

After conducting assessment, PLN said that there were only 25 of the power projects whose contracts could be renegotiated because the developers of the remaining 40 projects did not show seriousness to continue the projects. (*)