President calls for speedy completion of new power plants
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on state-owned electricity company PLN to speed up the construction of new power plants to reduce the number of regions facing electricity shortages and to overcome outages.
"The direction is already right but it has to be accelerated so that no region in the country is suffering from power shortage in the years to come," he said at a press conference after a working meeting at the PLN office here on Monday.
He said deficit of electricity supply in several regions outside Java had been reduced. "I encouraged them to accelerate the development so that no region is suffering from an electricity shortage and a surplus of supply or a backup supply could even be made," he said.
Regarding the big cost for developing a power plant the President said for the time being the obstacle could be overcome by generators.
"The short-term solution is using generators and if financial support from the national budget is needed for it, it will be fulfilled as the problem could be categorized as an emergency," he said.
Regarding the financing for the plant development in the first phase of the 10,000 MW electricity development program President Yudhoyono had asked for a continued negotiation with the Chinese company so that it could be continued intensively.
"I have instructed the ministers concerned and the president director of PLN to sit together and conclusively find a solution so that the physical development in the first phase of the program could be completed more quickly," he said.
President Yudhoyono on the occasion also called on the PLN to study the possibility of seeking financial help from other sources particularly domestic banks.
He said however that this would not close the opportunity for financing cooperation based upon an independent power producer (IPP) scheme.
"We must continue to encourage the IPP scheme. I received a report that there has already been a reference for determining the PLN and IPP portions and also sources of financing for the second phase of the 10,000 MW development program," he said.
PLN president director Fahmi Mochtar said that in the first phase of the 10,000 MW development program the company had been able to develop 32 power plant locations out of the target of 35.
"32 locations have been put in a contract and construction has already started in most of them. Meanwhile a contract is still being prepared for one location and re-bidding would still be done for two others," he said.
About the 1,00 MW transmission projects he said it would start operating commercially in 2009 in PLTU Labuan, PLTU Indramayu and PLTU Rembang.
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"The direction is already right but it has to be accelerated so that no region in the country is suffering from power shortage in the years to come," he said at a press conference after a working meeting at the PLN office here on Monday.
He said deficit of electricity supply in several regions outside Java had been reduced. "I encouraged them to accelerate the development so that no region is suffering from an electricity shortage and a surplus of supply or a backup supply could even be made," he said.
Regarding the big cost for developing a power plant the President said for the time being the obstacle could be overcome by generators.
"The short-term solution is using generators and if financial support from the national budget is needed for it, it will be fulfilled as the problem could be categorized as an emergency," he said.
Regarding the financing for the plant development in the first phase of the 10,000 MW electricity development program President Yudhoyono had asked for a continued negotiation with the Chinese company so that it could be continued intensively.
"I have instructed the ministers concerned and the president director of PLN to sit together and conclusively find a solution so that the physical development in the first phase of the program could be completed more quickly," he said.
President Yudhoyono on the occasion also called on the PLN to study the possibility of seeking financial help from other sources particularly domestic banks.
He said however that this would not close the opportunity for financing cooperation based upon an independent power producer (IPP) scheme.
"We must continue to encourage the IPP scheme. I received a report that there has already been a reference for determining the PLN and IPP portions and also sources of financing for the second phase of the 10,000 MW development program," he said.
PLN president director Fahmi Mochtar said that in the first phase of the 10,000 MW development program the company had been able to develop 32 power plant locations out of the target of 35.
"32 locations have been put in a contract and construction has already started in most of them. Meanwhile a contract is still being prepared for one location and re-bidding would still be done for two others," he said.
About the 1,00 MW transmission projects he said it would start operating commercially in 2009 in PLTU Labuan, PLTU Indramayu and PLTU Rembang.
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