Lasolo hydro-power plant to be built soon in Sulawesi

JAKARTA (JP): PT Iroda Mitra Corporation and two state-owned companies will start early next year the construction of the Lasolo hydro-power plant in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi, with a generation capacity of 96 megawatts.

"The electricity project will cost about US$200 million, of which 60 percent will be provided by Iroda Mitra and 40 percent by the state electric company PT PLN and the state-owned general mining firm PT Aneka Tambang," Aneka Tambang's president, Darmoko Slamet, said over the weekend. Pomalaa is about 200 km north of Kendari, the capital city of Southeast Sulawesi.

The hydro-power plant will harness the Oko-oko, Komoro and Huko-huko rivers near Aneka Tambang's nickel mining concession areas in Pomalaa to generate the electricity.

Darmoko took questions from reporters after a thank-God ceremony was organized by Aneka Tambang for the acceptance of an ISO 9002 standardization certificate for its ferronickel plant in Pomalaa.

He said the construction of the Lasolo power plant is badly needed by Aneka Tambang to promote plans to increase ferronickel production capacity from 11,000 tons per annum to 22,000 tons by 1999.

"We will build our third ferronickel processing unit with a capacity of 11,000 tons per year," he said.

Darmoko was quoted by Antara as saying that his company's current electricity supply from a nearby diesel power plant will not be enough to fulfill its electricity needs after the expansion.

He said the energy project will also cut the company's electricity generation costs with about 50 percent from six U.S. cents per kilowatt hours at present to three U.S. cents.

Aneka Tambang, which posted a net profit of Rp 45 billion last year, plans to go public next year to generate funds for the expansion. (13)