PLN TO CALL REPEAT TENDER FOR MUARA TAWAR ADD-ON PROJECT

Jakarta, Feb 8 (ANTARA) - State power utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) plans to call a repeat tender for the construction of the Muara Tawar add-on thermal power plant with a capacity of 1,200 MW in Bekasi, West Java.

The repeat tender was called because only one participant took part in the previous tender, PLN Planning and Technology Director Nasri Sebayang said here on Monday.
Under Presidential Decree No. 80/2003 the tender must be repeated because it lacked participants, he said.

"We will repeat the tender," he said.

PLN was supposed to call a tender for the construction of the US$ 1.02 billion project in August last year.

Nasri said the project would not be financed with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) loans as originally planned.

"It will be the tender winner who will provide the funding," he said.

He said the plan to seek export credits to finance the project had been approved by the government.

The second, third and fourth units of the Muara Tawar add-on thermal power plant were part of the government's program to develop power plants with a combined capacity of 10,000 MW, he said.
The Muara Tawar power plant was called an add-on project because it will make use of heat waste to increase electric power capacity.

PLN has set itself the target of operating plants with a combined capacity of 150 MW built in the first phase of the government's 10,000-MW power capacity development project in 2011.

The government has designated 93 different locations across the country for the implementation of the second phase of the 10,000-MW project.