Siemens consortium wins Muara Tawar power project

State electricity firm PLN has picked a consortium led by Siemens Indonesia to build 6x100-150 MW Muara Tawar combined cycle power plant in Bekasi, West Java, the company announced Monday. The consortium comprise of Siemens Indonesia, Germany?s Siemens AG, and South Korea?s Samsung Corp. and Balfour Beatty Sakti.

PLN president Eddie Widiono said the consortium, with bidding price of US$ 248 million, was the lowest among three bidders short-listed for the project. Two other bidders are consortium led by PT Matlamat Cakra Canggih with Marubeni Corp (Japan), Alstom Power Esi and Alstom Switzerland Ltd as members and a consortium led by PT Rekayasa Industri with Imeco Inter Sarana and Sumitomo Corp. (Japan) as members.

Eddie said the construction works would commence immediately with completion date expected around July next year.

Eddie said PLN would finance one-third of the construction cost from its own cash, one-third from Bank Mandiri?s loan and the balance would be finance from bond issue.

Muara Tawar power plant was designed as crash program to avoid power supply shortage in Java within the next few years. In the first years of operations the plant would burn fuel oil, as, thus far, PLN has not been able to secure natural gas supply.(godang)