PLN told to lease back power plants to Chinese contractors

By Bambang Atmaja

The government has asked state-owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to lease back dozens of power plants to the Chinese contractors to improve their reliability.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said stated that the power plants built by the Chinese contractors under the first fast track development program (FTP I) only have reliability of 60-65 percent due to poor quality.

The government wants the plants to be improved, and PLN has selected three of the five Chinese contractors to do the job. He did not provide further details.

There are 35 plants with combined capacity of 10,000 MW built by Chinese contractors under the FTP I.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak