Siemens wins Muara Tawar power project
Siemens wins Muara Tawar power project
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A Siemens consortium has won the tender for construction of
the expansion of Muara Tawar power plant in Bekasi, West Java,
state electricity company PT PLN announced on Monday.
The Siemens consortium, comprising PT Siemens Indonesia, PT
Balfour Beatty Sakti Indonesia, Samsung Corporation and Siemens
AG, was chosen on the grounds that it had offered the lowest
price in terms of rupiah per kilowatt capacity compared with the
two other competitors, Alstom and IMECO GE consortium, said PLN
president Eddie Widiono.
"The winner was selected after a study into the price of the
electricity produced that the consortium has offered, the amount
of investment and the share ownership of PLN after the power
plant has been running for 20 years," Eddie said at his office.
In terms of the power capacity price, the Siemens consortium
made the lowest offer, Rp 2.6 million, equivalent to US$288.95
per kilowatt of capacity.
In comparison, Alstom offered a price at Rp 3.3 million per
kilowatt capacity and IMECO Rp 3.4 million.
In terms of the project's value (excluding value-added tax),
the Siemens consortium also beat its competitors. It offered $248
million (Rp 2.2 trillion), far lower than the $312 million
offered by Alstom and $254 million by IMECO.
Having won the tender for the project, the Siemens consortium
will be obliged to build six power units, each with a generating
capacity of 100 Megawatts (MW) to 150 MW.
Project construction, an extension of the existing Muara Tawar
power plant, should start at the end of this month, and is
scheduled to continue until the middle of July 2004.
According to Eddie, the Muara Tawar project was initiated by
PLN after it learnt last year that a power crisis might be
imminent in Bali and Java in 2004. A power crisis would be
dangerous for the country's political stability. "Moreover, the
country will hold general elections that year," he said.
Total capacity of the Java-Bali power grid is currently some
18,000 MW, with a peak load of 13,700 MW. Without expansion of
the capacity, a power crisis would be imminent, given that power
demand grows by 8 percent annually.
The anticipated power crisis was precipitated by construction
delays over another power plant, Tanjung Jati B, Jepara, Central
Java, which was finally left in limbo due to financial
difficulties. Tanjung Jati B, if constructed, would have
strengthened the Bali and Java power grid by 2004, but after
difficulties in raising funds for the project, the deadline for
completion of its construction was postponed to 2006.
Eddie said that in order to substitute for the Tanjung Jati B
project so as to meet Bali and Java power demand in 2004, a
Cabinet meeting approved PLN's proposal last October on the
expansion of the Muara Tawar power plant, which would be equipped
with combined open-cycle gas turbines.
Eddie said that to help finance the project, PLN would issue
bonds worth Rp 900 billion in the near future. The company would
finance the balance of the investment cost from its own funds and
domestic loans.