PLN to work with Singapore company

PLN to work with Singapore company

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned electricity company PLN is slated to sign a memorandum of understanding with a Singaporean counterpart next week for cooperation to increase its power generation capacity, PLN's chief executive said.

"The agreement with the Singaporean company will have two functions: the transfer of technology and the improvement of investment," Antara quoted Djiteng Marsudi as saying over the weekend.

He said he expected that with this cooperation, PLN will be able to meet the ever-increasing demand for power.

PLN's power plants throughout the country currently have a total generation capacity of over 13,500 megawatts.

Djiteng said that under the planned agreement, the Singaporean partner is expected to put equity into PLN's subsidiaries, PT Pembangkitan I and PT Pembangkitan II, which operate power plants in Java and Bali.

He explained that foreign investment is necessary because the government's budget is very limited.

"The planned agreement with the Singaporean company will be the fifth after the previous agreements with National Power and National Grid of Britain, Hongkong China Light Power Ltd., and Electricite de France," said Djiteng.

Indonesia has set targets to set up additional power plants with a total capacity of 13,000 megawatts during the current five year development plan period (1994-1999), including plants with a combined capacity of 10,000 megawatts to be established by PLN and the remainder by private companies.

Djiteng said the construction of these power plants will require annual investments of Rp 10 trillion (US$4.3 billion). (kod)