South Sumatra power plants want govt guarantees

By Febry Silaban

State-owned PT Penjaminan Infrastruktur Indonesia (PII), an infrastructure guarantee agency, has received a proposal from state owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to guarantee two coal-fired mega power projects in South Sumatra, namely PLTU Minemouth Sumsel 9 and PLTU Minemouth Sumsel 10.

?Now, we are reviewing the proposal. We are talking to the Ministry of Finance about it since the projects are quite huge, needs a total investment of US$3.5 billion,? CEO of PII Sintya Rusli said on Wednesday at the Conference of Indonesian Electrical Power Society in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Sintya said the firm has thus far provided guarantee for PLTU Central Java, aside from ?toll road and railway projects.?

He said projects which are qualified to get guarantee from the agency are those owned by the government such as PLN?s Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects, and those jointly owned by the government and private investors, which are familiarly called Public Private Partnership.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon