Paiton II construction to be started in June

JAKARTA (JP): PT Jawa Power, a consortium of Bimantara of Indonesia, Siemens AG of Germany and PowerGen of Britain, will start the construction of the Paiton II steam power project in East Java in June with an investment of US$2.5 billion.

The president of PT Jawa Power, Gerald Folgenhauer, Siemens' chairman for Indonesia, Kurt Pleiffeld, and the vice director of Bumi Pertiwi Tata Pradipta (a subsidiary of Bimantara), Sutoto Sundoro, reported the plan for the plant's construction to East Java Governor Basofi Soedirman in Surabaya last week.

The coal-fired steam power plant, which is planned to have a generation capacity of 2,400 megawatt (MW), will have four units, each of which is to have a capacity of 600 MW.

"We will start the construction of two units in June," said Folgenhauer as quoted by Antara in Surabaya. "The construction of all four units will be completed within 46 months."

He said the construction of the first two units alone will cost $1.7 billion.

After the construction is completed, Jawa Power is required by an agreement with the government to sell the electricity to the State Electricity Company (PLN) at the price of 6.6 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).

East Java's Deputy Governor Soeprapto, who is in charge of economy and development, told reporters that PLN had completed the development of Paiton I and its electricity had been transmitted through the Java-Bali networks.

According to Soeprapto, each of the four units of Paiton I, which cost $1.1 billion in total, has a generation capacity of 400 MW.

The Paiton mega-project, which is located about 100 km east of Surabaya, will get its coal from East Kalimantan. (13)