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tate-owned aluminum producer PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) plans to accelerate the development of its power plant project, an Inalum executive says.

Inalum president commissioner Agus Tjahajana said the company was inching closer to completing the feasibility study for the planned 1,000 megawatt (MW), steam-driven power plant.

Initial plans to break ground in the middle of next year have been moved up to early next year.

'€œAfter the study is finished, we will carry out a bidding process and seek funds to finance construction,'€ Agus said Tuesday.

The construction of the power plant, which will require US$750 million in investment, is the first in a series of projects totaling $1.5 billion that Inalum plans to carry out through 2019. Other projects include a seaport and a new smelter to double the company'€™s production capacity of aluminum ingot to 500,000 tons.

The expansion has been enabled by the company'€™s acquisition last year of the operator of Southeast Asia'€™s lone aluminium smelter from Nippon Asahan Aluminium following the termination of a 30-year partnership.

Agus said that Inalum would seek external funding, but that it would also use internal coffers to finance the project.

The firm currently has internal cash holdings of around $450 million that is expected to rise to $500 million by the end of this year.

In addition, Inalum plans to team with a local partner, especially to secure coal. In the partnership Inalum would retain a minority stake, added Agus, who is also the Industry Ministry'€™s director general for international industry cooperation.

At present, Inalum relies on hydro power plants Asahan I and Asahan II, which have a combined capacity of 604 MW, for main supply of energy. The company currently provides 90 MW of power to North Sumatra.

Inalum needs a higher-capacity power plant following an instruction from the central government to help tackle the power crisis in North Sumatra, where the company provides approximately 210 MW to state-owned electricity company PT PLN.

North Sumatra residents are currently experiencing highly disruptive, daily and rotating blackouts as a result of the power shortfall.

The Inalum Workers Union (SP Inalum) expressed its opposition to the central government'€™s instruction, citing fears that the increased contribution of electricity to the state would cut into company profits and trigger layoffs. Separately, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini M. Soemarno said that Inalum would remain relatively unaffected by the increase in commitments to the PLN.

'€œWe have to look after this industry and we hope no workers will be laid layoff,'€ she said.

Rini added that from the additional power supply to PLN, Inalum might cash in a potential gain of up to Rp 2 trillion ($163.64 million) from 8 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) margin of profit.

According to Rini, Inalum can sell electricity at 9 cents per kWh, the same rate that the PLN gets from a power supplier in Serawak, Malaysia.