Tender for the coal-fired power plant Paiton and Suralaya delayed: PLN

State electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) said the opening of bidding document and the offering of bidding price of the tender for the construction of 600 ?700 MW coal-fired power plants ? Paiton and Suralaya ? scheduled for November 6 (today) was delayed until November 15, 2006, Bisnis Indonesia reported Monday.

?Bidders want us to extend the time schedule because they need to recalculate the costs that must be adjusted following the government?s move to give a guarantee for the projects. They expected (the opening of bidding document and the offering of price) to be held on November 20 but we do not agree. The auction committee sets the schedule for November 15,? explained one of the members of the committee for the government crash program in Jakarta over the weekend.

?With the guarantee given by the government, the projects are expected to face lower level of risk and thus, it can be used as one of the factors for bargaining the (bidding) price,? he said.

Earlier, consortium Dongfang Electric-Dalle, Marubeni-Tripara, Shanghai Maxima and CNTIC-Rekayasa Industri were interested in the coal-fired power plant Suralaya, with each submitting US$6 million guarantee.

While, consortium Marubeni-Tripara, Chengda-Wika, Shanghai-Maxima, Harbin Power-Duta Graha Indah were interested in the coal-fired power plant Paiton, with each submitting US$6 million guarantee.

The coal-fired power plant Paiton and Suralaya are among the power plants to be built as part of the government?s effort to provide additional power supply of 10,000 MW under its crash program. The program is expected to be completed by the end of 2009. (*)