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State power company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) said
Monday it had secured loans for the construction of its five coal-fired
power plants to be built under the government's '10,000 megawatt (MW)
crash' program.
PLN president director Eddie Widiono said the firm was set to sign
"financial facilities packages" with six banks in February.
He declined to identify the banks, but said the loans would cover 40
percent, or about US$1.9 billion, of the capital needed to build the
mega project.
With the project the government targets adding 10,000 MW of power
supply to the nation's power grid by 2009, with a total investment of
Rp 45 trillion ($4.8 billion).
Head of the government's power sector development program, Yogo
Pratomo, told The Jakarta Post the signing might be a follow-up to
PLN's tendering process last year, when the firm secured financing
worth up to $1 billion for the 600-MW Rembang plant in Central Java and
the 600-MW Indramayu plant in West Java from both local and foreign
lenders.
For the two projects, he said, PLN had 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.
For the remaining three projects, the loans are most likely to be given
to the 600-MW Labuan plant in Banten, the 600-MW Paiton Baru plant in
East Java and the new 600-MW Suralaya plant in Banten. The latest two
are currently in negotiations with Chinese lenders.
Yogo said PLN would again invite bids for the financing of the
company's four coal-fired power plants later this month.
The tender would be aimed at obtaining loans of up to $2 billion for
the development of four coal-fired power plants in Java -- 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.
The company targets finalizing the signing of all engineering,
procurement and construction (EPC) contracts in February to meet the
project's deadline.
PLN on Monday also signed four EPC contracts with four consortia made
up of local companies and Chinese developers to build four power plants
outside Java.
The project is estimated to cost $190 million, all of which would be
paid with the company's internal cash.
Eddie said the operation of the new power plants would cut the
company's spending for fuels by Rp 3 trillion each year.
At present, over 70 percent of PLN's power plants are powered by
oil-based fuels.
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