PLN reaches agreement with Amoseas on new power price

State electricity company PT PLN said it had reached an agreement with Amoseas on the new price for power supplies from the latter's geothermal power plant in Drajat in West Java.

PLN's president Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said during a meeting with the House of Representatives' Commission VIII for energy and mineral resources, environment, science and technology that Amoseas had agreed to lower its power price to 4.2 US cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) from 6.8 cents under the energy sales contract (ESC) signed by both parties on Jan. 15, 1995.

"Amoseas is the only independent power producer (IPP) with which PLN had reached an agreement on the restructuring of power purchase contract," Kuntoro said, adding that PLN had signed power purchase contracts with 27 IPPs.

"Actually, It's the government, not PLN, which has right to announce the result of the agreement to public," Kuntoro said.

PLN's chief negotiator Samsudin Warsa told Petromindo.Com after the meeting that the agreement on the contract restructuring had been reached in June last year.

Amoseas is owned by American energy firms Chevron and Texaco, which are also the owners of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, the country's largest oil producer, based in Riau.

Amoseas has built a geothermal power plant's unit with the power generation capacity of 70 Megawatt (MW). Under the 1995 contract, the company is allowed to build up to 275 MW power plant.

Aside from power, Amoseas also supplies geothermal steam to PLN's subsidiary PT Indonesia Power, which has built a 55-MW geothermal power plant in the area.

Kuntoro said Amoseas had also agreed to cut the price of its geothermal steam to 2.9 cents per kWh from the contractual price of 4.537 cents per kWh.

He said in return for its willingness to cut the price of its power and geothermal steam, PLN gave options to Amoseas to extend its power and geothermal steam supply 30-year contract period for another ten years. (Epin)