Indonesia's PLN secures Japan loans for power plant project

Indonesia's state-run power firm, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has obtained 2 billion U.S. dollars in loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)to finance the Indramayu thermal power plant, a senior PLN official said Monday.

"The feasibility study on Indramayu power plant is underway. If everything runs well, the engineering works can be commenced in2011," PLN Technology Planning Deputy Bambang Praptono said on the sidelines of a hearing with lawmakers in the parliament.

He said that since the project belongs to the government, the JICA's loan was provided under the subsidiary loan (SLA) agreement scheme.

Bambang said that the power plant would be part of the government's second phase of mega power plant project with total capacity of 10,000 MW.

The Indramayu plant has the capacity of 2X100 MW and is expected to add power supply in Java-Bali power grid by 2015.

He also said that PLN is seeking more loans to finance its major projects in 2010 with credit export scheme, the Detik.com reported.

PLN would improve the power capacity of its Muara Tawar thermal power plant that requires 850 million U.S. dollars next year.

Besides that, the state-run power firm would reinforce the Java-Bali undersea power cable and power distribution empowerment in the capital city of Jakarta that would require 60 million and 300 million U.S. dollars respectively.

Source: Xinhua