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PLN Batam's planned project dims over S'pore uncertainty
State power firm PT PLNâs Batam office is postponing its planned power plant project as its market, Singapore, has yet to follow up on its offer to buy electricity from Batam
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tate power firm PT PLN's Batam office is postponing its planned power plant project as its market, Singapore, has yet to follow up on its offer to buy electricity from Batam.
PT PLN Batam president director Dadan Koerniadipoera confirmed on Thursday the offer had stagnated since it appeared a year ago, with Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) allegedly yet to complete a feasibility study.
'We don't know what the obstacle is [on the Singaporean part]. But we cannot say that our plan to cooperate [to export electricity to Singapore] is aborted,' he told The Jakarta Post, adding the 2009 Electricity Law had made it possible for Indonesia to export power.
He said that right now or in the near future, Singapore may not need a huge amount of electricity and may not need to meet demand by importing from Batam.
The EMA could not provide an immediate response to the Post's email interview sent on Friday.
In response to the EMA's offer, PLN Batam has carried out a preliminary feasibility study to build a 1,000 megawatt (MW) power plant worth Rp 12 trillion (US$984 million).
The power plant is meant to supply Singaporean manufacturers, whose demand may reach 600 to 1,000 MW.
A tender for the power plant project was initially planned for some time this year, but its implementation remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the realization of the power plant project was initially scheduled for 2017.
In addition to Indonesia, Malaysia received the same response, but Indonesia is considered better placed to secure the offer because it has more resources to generate power than Malaysia, while Malaysia buys coal from Indonesia to run its power plants.
Batam has a power excess, with PLN Batam's capacity amounting to 314 MW, on top of the 2x55 MW Tanjung Kasam steam power plant, the operation of which has just commenced.
Also, PLN is slated to finish its 190 MW gas-fired power plant in Batam next year.
The domestic electricity rate stands at Rp 1,000 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), more competitive than that in Singapore with Rp 1,500 per kWh.
Johannes Kennedy Aritonang, a director at PT Guna Cipta Mandiri, a power plant contractor, said it was impossible for Singapore to import electricity from Indonesia if it could still import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Indonesia.
'Imagine, PLN Batam plans to send the Singapore electricity it generates from the same gas that Singapore imports from Indonesia, and both PLN and Singapore buys the gas for the same price from PGN [state gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara],' he said.
'It isn't competitive. It would be better for Singapore to build its own power plant because we keep exporting gas.'
The now defunct upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas previously said last year that it had not had any new gas export contracts for Singapore since 2005, and had only shipped gas to realize existing contracts.
It said that some of the contracts would end between 2015 and 2017, while others would expire after 2020.
