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tate-owned electricity firm, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) will receive an additional supply of 2,090 megawatts (MW) by the end of this year from its first 10,000 MW fast-track power plant development program, a company executive says.

At a public hearing of the House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing energy affairs on Thursday, PLN president director Nur Pamudji said the power capacity from the first fast-track program, launched in 2006, had so far reached 5,707 MW.

'€œThis means the construction of new power plants under the first fast-track program is 57 percent complete. Our target is to boost capacity to 7,797 MW by the end of this year,'€ he said in Jakarta.

At least six power plants with a total capacity of 1,197 MW began operation this year, according to data from PLN. In addition, 13 power plants with a capacity of 1,175 MW would commence operation later this year. Resulting in a total increase in power supply to 13,074 MW.

In addition to the first fast-track program, the country is also set to have a capacity boost of 3,210 MW from PLN'€™s regular projects and other independent power producers (IPPs).

Although the first phase of the program was first initiated seven years ago, some of the projects are yet to be constructed. According to PLN, the construction of 15 power plants, with a total capacity of 1,882.5 MW, would begin in 2014.

Separately, PLN construction director Nasri Sebayang said that funding, land acquisition, licensing and a lack of coordination between the main contractors and their subcontractors were the major factors that affected the construction of the first fast-track program'€™s plants.

'€œOnly a small number of power plant projects in this program were finished on time such as the coal-fired steam power plant [PLTU] Ende in East Nusa Tenggara and PLTU Tanjung Balai Karimun in Riau Islands,'€ he said. The two projects, each with a relatively small power capacity of 7x2 MW, were scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, but began to be operated ahead of the initial timetable.

The rest of the program'€™s power plant projects, however, were delayed by up to 17 months due to contractor, finance, licensing and other technical problems.

In response, Democratic Party lawmaker Soetan Bhatoegana, who chairs House Commission VII, said that legislators would push PLN to speed up the development of the first fast-track program so it would not repeat past experiences and slip behind schedule.