JAKARTA: State electricity company PLN has said that its plan to hold the prequalification tender for the procurement of liquefied natural gas (LNG) aims to accelerate a 35,000 Megawatt (MW) power plant construction project.
PLN’s director for strategic procurement and primary energy, Amin Subekti, said the company would hold a tender not only to ensure smooth power plant construction but also to secure its gas supply.
“PLN will hold the tender for the power plant construction separately. We will first hold a tender to find the gas supplier. The government aims to realize the 35,000 MW power plant project by any means. So, we decided to hold separate tenders for the power plant construction and its gas supplying,” he said as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Amin said the gas procurement’s prequalification stage was ongoing.
PLN would auction not only the supply of gas but also its transportation and supplying infrastructure as well as its regasification facilities.
He said PLN had announced studies on the prequalification process, followed by consultation sessions held at the company’s headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“We will compile a document in the next month and then we will give them [tender participants] one month to submit their proposals. The tender will hopefully be completed within the next four months,” said Amin.
He further explained that in the end, the tender winners would create consortiums in which each of them would be permitted to procure gas domestically or through imports, to accommodate and to store, to transport and regasify the gas in every gas-powered electricity plant.
Earlier, PLN announced the opening of the prequalification tender for the procurement of 230 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of LNG for small-scale power plants in regions in central Indonesia.
The LNG supplying for power plants with a total capacity of 2,800 MW is aimed at overcoming the supply deficit and to provide electricity peakers in Java.
It is also hoped that the LNG supplying can accelerate the electrification and spur economic growth in areas outside Java. (ebf)
