PLN to give repeat order to Ansaldo

GARUT, West Java (JP): The state electricity company PT PLN will give a repeat order to Ansaldo GIE SPA of Italy for construction of another 55-megawatt geothermal power generation plant on Mount Salak, West Java next month.

"The plant's construction, expected to be partly financed by an export credit from the Italian government, will cost US$48 million," PLN's head for the Mount Salak geothermal plant project, Willem D. Huwae, told reporters on Thursday.

He said the state oil company Pertamina and its contractor PT Unocal Geothermal Indonesia have been able to provide steam from 11 wells in Mount Salak to anticipate the plants' expansion.

"The geothermal steam field in Mount Salak is estimated to be able to support the generation of plants with a total capacity of up to 600 megawatts," he said.

The first two units of the geothermal plant on Mount Salak with a total capacity of 110 megawatts, which has cost PLN Rp 197 billion for construction, will be inaugurated by President Soeharto on Dec. 15.

The President will also inaugurate another geothermal plant with a capacity of 55 megawatts in Darajat near Garut in West Java, an open-cycle power generation plant in Tanjung Priok, Jakarta with a capacity of 260 megawatts, a combined-cycle plant in Tanjung Priok with a capacity of 800 megawatts, a gas-fueled power station in Bali with a capacity of 84 megawatts, a diesel- fueled generation plant in Lombok with a capacity of 15.2 megawatts as well as Pertamina's first export-oriented oil refinery of Balongan in Indramayu, West Java, with a processing capacity of 125,000 barrels of oil per day. (fhp)