S

tate power utility PT PLN says it has begun the initial construction process for a planned electricity transmission line project that will connect the Indonesia and Malaysia power grid.

According to the plan, there would be two transmission lines, first, from South Sumatra to Malaysian peninsula, second, from West Kalimantan to Serawak.

PLN president director Nur Pamudji said the company has started the construction of the West Kalimantan-Serawak transmission this year by initiating land acquisitions. PLN expects construction to be completed by the end of 2014.

“We need to acquire land within the area of the projects before we can open tender to appoint contractors,” he told reporters at the sidelines of a national workshop on reforming PLN’s services held at Ambara Hotel, Jakarta,
on Friday.

He said that the West Kalimantan-Serawak transmission would be 122 kilometers long, and it would have the capacity of 275 kilovolt (kV).

PLN was in the process of establishing a joint venture company to handle the transmission line operation for the South Sumatra-Malaysian peninsula line, Pamudji said.

“After we create the joint venture as the business framework for the transmission line, then we will begin its construction next year,” he said.

PLN would use a subsea cable with the capacity of 250 kV high voltage direct current (HVDC) to connect the
Sumatra-Malaysia transmission line, which is expected to start operations in 2017.

“In 2017, we expect that if we could fulfill Sumatra’s domestic electricity needs, then we would have a surplus of electricity to be exported,” Pamudji said.

As part of the plan, there would be a consortium among Indonesian state-owned coal producer PT Bukit Asam (PTBA), PT PLN and Malaysian electricity utility firm Tenaga Nasional Berhad, to build a power plant with a
capacity of around 1,000 megawatts (MW) in Riau province.

Pamudji said all parties have signed a cooperation agreement in June and expect to start construction for the power plant in 2013.

“According to my estimation, we would need no less than Rp 20 billion [US$2.09 million] to realize the project, but we will know the exact amount in December,” he said.

Following the construction of the electricity transmission line, Indonesia expects to export its electricity to Malaysia. But, the country will also import power from Malaysia.

Pamudji said that PLN targets to export as much as 100 MW of electricity to Malaysia starting in 2014. “We have already exported a small amount of our electricity from Sumatra to Malaysia at approximately below 1 MW,” he went on.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has announced that Indonesia would start importing around 50 MW for five years from Malaysia in a bid to curb the utilization of oil-based fuels in West Kalimantan, after the electricity transmission line project is complete.