Dutch energy firms want Indonesia partners

JAKARTA (JP): Forty-five Dutch energy companies are looking for partners to develop power stations in Indonesia using clean coal technology.

"About 40 percent of electricity in the Netherlands is coal based. We have been able to develop clean coal technology, where a very high efficiency goes along with very low emissions," the director-general of energy at the Dutch ministry of economics, C.W.M. Dessens, told a workshop yesterday.

Dessens is here as part of a mission to Indonesia.

The workshop, which ends today, is organized by the Netherlands' Ministry of Economic Affairs, Senter (the Netherlands' executive agency for technology, energy and environment), the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the Indonesian Netherlands Association.

Senter project officer Bas C.M. Pulles said the 45 companies comprised big and small firms and about half of then had representatives in Indonesia or business relations with Indonesia.

Several Dutch universities were involved in the mission, he said.

Besides clean coal technology, the seminar discussed oil and gas technology, renewable energy, electricity and electricity networks.

Dessens said energy use in Indonesia had risen considerably over the past three decades.

The state-electricity company PLN will increase Indonesia's power generation capacity from 13,129 Megawatts (MW) to 39,000 MW by 2004.

Currently, Indonesian coal-fired plants make about 3,500 MW of power but PLN plans to lift this to 31,000 MW by 2010.

The Royal Netherlands Embassy said the Dutch Government had developed a subsidy scheme called Indonestec for businesspeople and universities to promote technological cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands.

The Dutch government will spend 11.4 million gilders (US$6.04 million) on the program over four years, including 2.8 million gilders last year. (jsk)