Result of the tender for Suralaya coal-fired power plant protested

China?s Consortium Dong Fang Electric Corporation, one of the bidders in the planned construction of coal-fired power plants under the government's fast track program, has lodged an objection to the result of the tender of Suralaya coal-fired power plant, saying that the prospective tender winner has not provided complete data on required machine specification, Kompas reported Wednesday.

The daily said that the consortium sent the letter of objection to the result of the tender for the construction of the 600 MW ? 700 MW coal-fired power plant on December 10, 2006.

Another bidder, Japan?s consortium Marubeni, also plans to file an objection to the result of the tender to the auction committee. The dateline for the filing of objection to the tender result is Wednesday (today).

Consortium Dong Fang and Dalle Energy said in the letter of objection that CNTIC did not submit important data regarding its capabilities, including the net plant heat rate. The rate is important to find out how much calorie is needed to fire one kWh. Besides, the oxide nitrogen emission rate of 1,200 that the company proposes is too high compared to the required standard emission rate of 750 ppm.

PT Dalle Energy?s director Sonny Purnara said that the company will file a lawsuit against the auction committee of the state electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to the Business Competition Watchdog Commission for the tender result if the company did not provide satisfactory answers.

Meanwhile, committee member of the 600 MW-700 MW coal-fired power plant Bambang Tetuko said that every bidder has a right to lodge an objection. However, as the owner of the power plant projects, PLN has a full authority to determine which bidder that can meet PLN?s need.

He asserted that the committee has abided by all of the tender regulations. ?It is impossible for the committee to evaluate if the submitted data was incomplete,? he said.

The 10,000 MW coal-fired power plant tender team chairman Yogo Pratomo said that the result of the tender which was announced last week was subject to change. ?That is just the order number of the prospective winners and can be changed if the team find points that do not correspond to (the conditions) and besides, the letter of intent (LoI) has yet to be signed,? he said.

The team will answer the objection within five days.

The signing of LoI of the Suralaya coal-fired power plant and Paiton is scheduled for this month. The commitment on the contract agreement is expected to be made in January 2007. (*)