PTBA, PLN still renegotiate electricity prices for S. Sumatra power plants
Monday, February 23 2009 - 02:41 AM WIB
PLN?s President Director Fahmi Mochtar said that the renegotiations were currently in a final stage but a further talk would be still needed to discuss the details for the final price agreement.
In January 2009, Fahmi Mochtar said that negotiations between the firm and PTBA had been deadlocked over the price payable by PLN for the power to be generated by the power plant
"They insist on the selling price of 5 U.S. cents (per kilowatt hour or kWh). We already have a (price) benchmark. If they accept, we'll make a deal. If not, we'll think about other option," Fahmi said on January 14, 2009.
PTBA, which operates a large coal mine in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra, is currently building two coal-fired power plants near the company?s mining site. The two mine-mouth power plants are the Banjarsari power plant with a capacity of 2 x 100 megawatt and the Banko Tengah power plant with a capacity of 4 x 600 MW.
PTBA?s president director Sukrisno said that the mining company had asked for an increase in the selling price of the power supply from Banjarsari to PLN to 5 U.S cent from 3.8 U.S cent stated in the previous agreement due to rising construction costs of the power plant.
The company said that the plant is expected to come onstream in 2011 with annual coal consumption of 1.1 million tones.
However, he said, the price of the power supply from Banko Tengah could be lowered to between 4.5 cent to 5 cent from the previous 5.34 cent because unlike Banjarsari, the construction costs of Banko Tengah were lower than the initial estimate.
PTBA has 41 percent stake in the Banjarsari power plant. It owns 28 percent of the Banko Tengah project, with China Huadian owning 55 percent, PT Indika Energy about eight percent, PLN eight percent and the local administration-owned company BUMD Sumsel owns the remaining one percent. (*)