Timah to start construction of power plant next year

IDX-listed tin giant PT Timah Tbk hopes that construction of a planned 2x10 MW gas-fired power plant in Muntok, West Bangka Regency, Bangka Belitung Province, to start early next year, Investor Daily reported on Friday.

The paper quoted Timah President Director Sukrisno as saying that the gas-fired power plant would replace the existing diesel-fired power plant thus cutting down significantly the consumption of the latter?s more pricey fuel to slash production cost by about 50 percent.

Sukrisno said that the power plant would be developed by its partner, the output of which would be purchased by the company. Gas for the power plant would be converted from coal under a coal gasification project to be developed by the partner. He declined to disclose the name of the partner.

Sukrisno added that in the future, the capacity of the power plant would be doubled to 4x10 MW. Currently, the company requires power supply of 23 MW, which means that it would still have to use diesel fired power plant even once the 2x10 MW gas-fired power plant has been completed. (*)