PLN needs $7.6b to expand network

State electricity firm PT PLN said on Monday it needed $7.6 billion to expand and strengthen its network over the next three years to transmit and distribute power from the proposed 10,000 Megawatt (MW) power plants.

The company will require $4.3 billion to improve and add transmission capacity from the power plants to consumers and another $3.3 billion to build new distribution networks, Herman Darnel Ibrahim, company vice president of transmission and distribution, said after the company's meeting with the House of Representatives.

The goverment has launched a crash program to develop several coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 10,000 MW over the next three years in a bid to meet the growing demands for power and cut down the country's dependency on oil in generating power.

"We have to secure funds for the transmission expansion, otherwise the electricity cannot reach consumers even if the power plants are there," Ibrahim said.

"We have to secure funds for the transmission expansion, otherwise the electricity cannot reach consumers even if the power plants are there," Ibrahim said.

According to him, in order to transmit and distribute supplies from the proposed power plants, PLN had to add about 200 central power houses that can take electricity from main power lines and reduce its voltage for distribution to customers. PLN now operates 804 power houses, of which more than 70 percent are located in Java, according to the latest data on the utility's web site. (Godang)