Zelan named preferred bidder for Rembang power project

State owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) is negotiating with a consortium comprising Malaysian and Indonesian firms on the construction of a 300-Megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Rembang in Central Java.

PLN?s president Eddie Widiono said on Friday the consortium of Zelan Holding Sdn Bhd, Tronoh Consolidated Malaysia Bhd and PT Primanaya, was named as the preferred bidder in the re-tendering of the project, which is part of the government?s program to build 10,000 MW power plants in the next coming years.

PLN first auctioned off the project, along with several other power plant projects, several months ago, but decided to retender it after the first tendering process failed to attract at least three bidders.

Eddie said the second tendering process had attracted four bidders, including the Zelan consortium, the China National Machinery Import Export Corp (CMC)-Shanghai Golden Concord Power Engineering Corp-PT Wijaya Karya consortium, the Hubei Hongyuan Power Engineering Co.Ltd,-PT Modaco Indonesia consortium, the Harbin Power Engineering Co.Ltd-PT Mitra Selaras Hutama Energi consortium.

However, only the Zelan consortium pledged a bank guarantee in its bidding proposal. The consortium pledges a bank guarantee amounting to US$6.8 million from HSBC ($4.76 million) and BNI ($2.04 million).

?We hope to sign a contract (with the Zelan consortium) on January 27,? Eddie said.

He also said PLN had completed technical valuations over and clarified financial documents submitted by bidders for the Labuhan, Tanjung Awar-Awar and Indramayu power plants, which each has a planned capacity of 300 MW. The projects, which are part of the 10,000 MW project, were also retendered after the first tendering process failed to attract at least three bidders.

In the retendering process, each of the three power plant projects attracted more than three bidders, but only one bidder in each project pledged a bank guarantee.

For the Labuhan project, only the Chengda Corp-PT Truba Jurong Engineering consortium pledged a bank guarantee amounting to $6.8 million from Bank of China.

For the Tanjung Awar-Awar project, only the China National Machinery Industry Corp-Sinomach-PT Penta Adi Samudera consortium pledged a bank guarantee amounting to $6.8 million from ABN Amro Bank.

For the Indramayu project, only the China national Machinery Industry Corp-Sinomach-PT Penta Adi Samudera consortium pledged a bank guarantee amounting $10.2 million from ABN Amro Bank.

Eddie said PLN expected to sign contracts with the winners of the Labuhan, Tanjung Awar-Awar and Indramayu projects in February next year. (Godang)