PLN Buys from Private Companies to Deal with Crisis

Tempo Interactive, Tuesday, 24 November, 2009 | 18:17 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:In order to deal with electricity shortage in some parts of Indonesia, state-owned electricity company, PLN, is signing a contract with a number of companies that have excess power. PLN Operations Director for Java-Madura-Bali, Murtaqi Syamsuddin, explained that the company has discussed the plan with nine companies in North Sumatera, Riau, Jambi, Lampung, West Java and East Java that have their own electricity generators.

“They are producers of palm oil, paper, gas and textiles,” Murtaqi said yesterday.

At a meeting last Friday, Murtaqi said, the owners of these companies agreed to supply 86 megawatt of electricity to PLN. This comprises 12 MW for North Sumatra, 16 MW for Riau, 4 MW for Bintan, 10 MW for East Java, 17 MW for South Kalimantan, 20 MW for West JAva, 6 MW for Lampung, and 11 MW for Jambi.

Earlier, PLN signed a contract to buy 106 MW of electricity from PT Inalum, and a 47 MW supply from PT Growth Plantation in North Sumatra as well as a 61 MW from PT Bekasi Power and PT Argopantes in West Java. “The electricity power is now already in PLN’s system,” Murtaqi said.

SORTA TOBING