PLN, Paiton ink power price at US 4.93 cents
Wednesday, July 3 2002 - 09:51 AM WIB
PLN president director Eddie Widiono and Paiton president director Ronald Landry signed the accord Tuesday evening, Paiton?s spokeswoman Erna Indiryana told Detick.com.
PLN had held intensive negotiations with Paiton to cut the price of electricity to be supplied by Paiton I coal power plant in Probolinggo, East Java.
The firm had been pressured to renegotiate its contract with Paiton particularly the 4.93 cent price which was deemed as too high especially with the sharp decline in the value of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar.
Paiton was among the 27 IPPs which had signed agreements with PLN to supply electricity to it. But the government suspended their projects in 1998 after Indonesia was hit by severe economic crisis and rupiah value fell drastically against the U.S. dollar.
House members had strongly urged PLN to press Paiton to cut Paiton?s electricity price.
Erna said on Wednesday: ?The 4.93 cent is very good price, and was the best level touched on during our negotiations. It was the optimum result that we could get from our negotiations.?
Meanwhile, President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Wednesday dedicated the continuation of Paiton I and six other power generation projects which had been put on hold due to the economic crisis.
The six projects, to be developed by IPPs, are located in East Java, Central Java, West Java, South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi. (*)