T

he Batam subsidiary of state electricity company PLN says it has received an invitation to bid for a contract to supply power to Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA).

Dadan Koerniadipoera, the president director of PLN subsidiary PT Pelayanan Listrik Batam (PLN Batam), said on Wednesday that bidding on the tender would be opened in 2013 for delivery in 2017.

PLN Batam will compete with a Malaysian power utility that also received an offer to bid on the tender.

Dadan said it would cost Rp 12 trillion (US$1.34 billion) to build a 1,000-megawatt (MW) plant to provide power to Singapore according to PLN Batam’s preliminary feasibility study.

PLN Batam had an excellent chance to win the tender, given a competitive advantage over its potential Malaysian competitor, according to Dadan.

He said in addition to gas, Indonesia also has coal to produce electricity.

“We are going to export electricity to Singapore. As of now, we only export raw materials to that country.”

Dadan said he expected there would be few bumps in exporting electricity overseas, as the process had been regulated by the 2009 Electricity Law.

“We expect support from all relevant stakeholders so that we, as the ones who have all the
needed resources, will not be defeated by another country, whose supply of raw materials depends on us. We hope we are going to be able to export electricity to Singapore. We will do our best to win,” Dadan said.

Meanwhile, PLN Batam technical director Fahmi El Amruzi said that the company would establish a separate power plant to supply electricity to Singapore so there would be no disruptions to the existing plants that served Batam and Bintan, Riau Islands.

The subsidiary currently can produce 314 MW against a maximum use of 264 MW, leaving it with a 50-MW reserve.

The electricity supply in Batam has been growing at 12.1 percent a year.

PLN Batam’s electricity supply is slated to grow further after the 2x55 MW Tanjung Kasam coal-fired power plant (PLTU) comes online in June.

“[The] electricity surplus will be distributed through the power grid to Bintan Island. We will supply electricity to Bintan at a cheaper price compared to Batam. As for Singapore, we will build a separate power plant,” Fahmi said.

“The Malaysian power plant uses coal that is supplied from Indonesia. Numerically, we are going to be more competitive than that country,” he added.

The current price for PLN Batam’s electricity for the domestic market was around Rp 1,000 per kilowatt hour, Fahri said.

Meanwhile, he added, in Singapore, the standard price was Rp 1,500 per kilowatt hour, which bolstered PLN Batam’s chance to win the contract.