Pre-qualification tender for coal-fired power plants to open next week

State owned electricity company PLN will open next week the qualification tender for the construction of coal-fired power plants to be built under the government's crash program, Kompas reported Friday.

PLN's acting president director Djuanda Nugraha Ibrahim said in Jakarta the pre-qualification tender would begin with the launch of 10 coal-fired power plants located in Java and other three similar projects located outside Java.

"With the launch of the pre-qualification tender next week, we hope the signing for the 13 coal-fired power project could be carried out in August," he said.

He said that the Presidential decree which officially assigned PLN to carry out the government's crash program to build several coal-fired power plants with total capacity of 10,000 MW had been issued on July 5. The construction of the power projects should be completed before the end of 2009.

The crash program will include the construction of 40 coal-fired power plants, 30 of which would be built in Java and the other 10 would be built outside Java. The construction of the power projects should be completed before the end of 2009.

The government has also set up a coordinating team to oversea the crash program. Senior official at the ministry of energy and mineral resources Yogo Pratomo as been appointed to lead the team.

Yogo said that a number of Chinese companies which had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the construction of some of the coal-fired power plants would be directly appointed to carry out the projects.

"We will soon hold a meeting with Chinese investors to discuss which of the plants they are interested in," he said. "The other plants will be offered to other investors through an open tender," he added.

According to him, the offering price of US$700,000 per MW offered by Chinese investors would be used the benchmark for the construction of the coal-fired power plants. The offering price has not included the spending for land, coal port and transmission facilities. "If all the components are included, the price for the construction of coal-fired power plants will reach between US$850,000 and $900,000 per MW. (*)