PLN to complete Papua power plant project in October

State-owned electricity firm PT PLN said that a 50 MW gas engine power plant project in Holtekamp, Jayapura, the capital of Papua Province, is targeted to start operation in October of this year.

PLN General Manager for Papua region, Henrison Lumbanraja said in a statement Thursday that construction progress of the gas engine power plant (PLTMG) has reached 50 percent.

?We?re continuing efforts so that this year, exactly in October, the PLTMG can be connected with the Jayapura electricity system,? Henrison said.

He added that PLN is also developing another gas engine power plant with capacity of 20 MW in Nabire Regency, Papua Province, of which construction progress has only reached 10 percent so far.

PLN also plans to develop power plants in many other locations in Papua and West Papua provinces including in Sorong, Fak-fak, Timika, Manokwari, Bintuni, Biak, Serui, and Merauke as the state utility aims to boost electrification ratio in the region to 90 percent by 2019 as instructed by President Joko Widodo.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak