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The government and state electricity company PT PLN will
later this month invite bids for the financing of the company's four
coal-fired power plants.
The head of the government's power-sector development program, Yogo
Pratomo, said Thursday that the tender aimed to seek loans valued up to
US$2 billion, or about 85 percent of the total funds needed to build
the projects.
The development of the four power plants is part of the government's
ambitious crash-program to build coal-fired power plants able to
generate 10,000 megawatts (MW) by 2009.
The four are the 600 MW Pacitan plant in East Java, the 900 MW
Pelabuhan Ratu plan in West Java, the 900 MW Teluk Naga plant in Banten
and the 600 MW Tanjung Awar-awar plant in East Java.
Yogo said that the tender was opened to both domestic and foreign
lenders, adding that he had sent 20 invitations to to local and
overseas banks.
The tender will be the second after the first one last year, when four
power plant projects were put on offer. The four are the 600 MW Labuan
plant in Banten, the 900 MW Indramayu plant in West Java, the 600 MW
Rembang plant in Central Java and the 600 MW Paiton Baru plant.
For the first tendering process, Yogo said PLN had managed to secure
financing or loans of up to $1 billion for Rembang and Indramayu plants
from both local and foreign banks.
PLN has secured dollar-denominated loans from the Bank of China and the
U.S. Berkeley Bank and rupiah-denominated loans from Bank Mandiri and
Bank Central Asia.
The government is still in the negotiation process with Chinese banks
for Paiton and Labuan, Yogo added.
Under this crash-program, the government instead of PLN will decide the
tender process and its winners, in particular because of the
government's decision to provide a guarantee for the power plant
projects.
Normally, no tenders would be held for the financing of power plants as
they fall under the responsibility of the contractors, while PLN has
only to bear 15 percent of the required funds.
Under the government's crash program, 10 coal-fired power plants with a
total capacity of 6,900 MW will be built in Java, while 25 with a total
capacity of 3,100 MW will be built outside Java.
The program aims to provide an additional 10,000 MW of power to the
country by 2009, to push to supplies to around 39,000 MW.
PLN is turning to non oil-based fuels to generate power, including
coal, amid the sky-rocketing price of oil on the global market.
At present, over 70 percent of PLN's power plants are fired by
oil-based fuels.
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