PLN cuts costs by Rp 2.5t

Alfian ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 06/19/2009 11:49 AM  |  Business

State power firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) said Thursday it had cut power generation costs by Rp 2.5 trillion (US$243m) up to the end of May, by reducing oil-based fuel consumption.

PLN Java-Bali area director Murtaqi Syamsuddin said the reduction was made possible because the company had increased the output of electricity from gas-fired power stations.

"Between January and May PLN increased power generated from gas-fired power plants by 2,460 gigawatt-hours (GWh)," Murtaqi said.

Within the first five months of the year total electricity generation reached 46,588 GWh, a slightly higher level than the 46,500 GWh generated by the company in the same period last year.

Of this total amount of generated power, the contribution from oil-fired power plants has decreased from 11,407 GWh (23.76 percent) in 2008 to 6,463 GWh (13.87 percent) this year, he said.

"This means that PLN has reduced the amount of electricity generated from oil-based fuels by 4,944 GWh (gigawatt-hours) during the period," Murtaqi said.

Murtaqi said that, in the first five month of this year, PLN's gas-fired power plants generated 10,238 GWh (21.98 percent) of power, up from 7,778 Gwh (16.7 percent) generated in the same period last year.

He added that the increase of gas-fired power output mostly came from the Muara Tawar power plant which has used more gas since the end of last year.

Murtaqi said that state oil and gas company PT Pertamina and state gas company PT PGN supplied the power plant with 30 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (MMSCFD) and 200 MMSCFD, respectively.

"PLN has fully absorbed gas supplied by the two companies," he said.

Murtaqi said PLN planned to gradually increase the use of gas and coal in its power plants. This would facilitate continuing reductions in the use of oil-fired power units.

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