PLN plans to build new hydropower plant unit in North Sumatera

State owned electricity company PLN would soon build the third unit of the Asahan hydropower plant in North Sumatera, with a generating capacity of up to 400 Megawatt, Neraca daily reported on Thursday.

Monang Sirumapea, the general manager of the branch office of PLN for North Sumatera and Aceh, said in Medan on Wednesday that analyses on the environmental impact of the new power plant had been submitted to the North Sumatera environmental monitoring office (Bapedal) for approval.

"We are now still negotiating with the local governments of Asahan and Toba Samosir regencies on the possible relocation of three villages to make way for the expansion of the water dam for the project," he was quoted as saying.

Monang said that PLN was also still exploring the possibility of obtaining soft loans from JBIC of Japan to finance the construction of the new power unit.

The North Sumatera-Aceh interconnection is expected to receive an additional power supply of about 33 MW from the second unit of the hydropower plant, which is expected to start its commercial production within the next few days.

The first unit of the power plant has an installed capacity of 17 MW. (*)