Prices of power plants in Indonesia much higher: Team
JAKARTA (JP): A special fact-finding team of the Ministry of Mines and Energy concluded after a one-week comparative study of power plants in Malaysia and Thailand that the prices offered by the foreign contractors for three steam and gas power projects in Java turned out to be much higher.
Informed sources at the State Electricity Company (PLN) which also joined the team disclosed here yesterday that the prices of combined-cycle (steam and gas) power plants in Thailand ranged from US$489 to $502 per kW in Malaysia from $597 to $599, compared to a range of $610 to $701 per kW the foreign contractors offered for the power projects in Java.
The sources said the prices of open-cycle (gas) power plants in Thailand ranged from $424 to $510 per kW in Malaysia from $372 to $493, compared to $529 to $534 for the Java projects.
"We have revised all the components of the job contracts to make the projects in Malaysia and Thailand comparable to the three projects in Java," they pointed out.
"By reviewing all the cost components, we are able to compare an apple to an apple," the sources added.
The team, headed by Haposan Silalahi, the inspector general of the Ministry and Mines and Energy, was sent on May 14 to make the comparative study following a controversy over the appointment of three foreign contractor consortiums to build the three power projects on a repeat-order basis.
Order
The government early in March awarded the three gas and steam power plant projects on a repeat-order basis to foreign contractors after they agreed to lower their bidding prices from a total of $2.14 billion to $1.76 billion. The total prices were again reduced to $1.65 billion in April.
However, the repeat orders set off a controversy as many analysts saw the prices offered by the foreign contractors as much higher than those in Indonesia's neighbouring countries.
The 982-megawatt Muara Tawar combined-cycle power project in West Java was awarded to a consortium of German ABB and Japanese Marubeni, the 505-megawatt Tambak Lorok open-cycle project in Central Java to a group of Japanese Sumitomo and American General Electric and the 855-megawatt Grati combined-cycle power project in East Java to a consortium of Japanese Mitsubishi and German Siemens.
Sources who followed the evaluation of the projects contend that the lowered bidding prices of the contractors were much higher than those offered by GEC Alsthom.
They said the lowered prices which ranged from $610 to $701 per kW for combined-cycle generation, and $529 to $534 for open cycle generation were still much higher than the $600 and $500 per kW, respectively, offered by GEC-Alsthom, an Anglo-French company.
PLN had repeatedly argued that the three projects should be awarded on a repeat-order basis to speed up their implementation in order to cope with the present severe power shortages.
The sources declined to give further details on the team's recommendations to the government, adding that the team's report had yet to be studied by the relevant agencies.
The special team which visited Thailand and Malaysia last month consisted of representatives of PLN, the National Development Planning Agency and the Agency for the Research and Application of Technology. (vin)