VIVAnews – State electricity company PLN teams up with the Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Malaysian state power company, to construct a 100 to 200-kilometer-long interconnection network between Sumatra and Malaysia.
PLN”s planning and technology director Bambang Praptono said that the interconnection construction is made for power exchange by transferring the electricity current from both countries during peak load. The power exchange can reach 600 Megawatt in 2015.
“It is a partnership [to have] power exchange during peak load. Malaysia will be supplied 300 MW during day time, and Malaysia will return 300 MW during night time,” Praptono said in Jakarta on Tuesday, Oct. 27.
Praptono argues that the partnership will stop the company to operate generating units which use fuel, thus cutting the supply cost and save electricity supply.
The budget of the transmission network construction is estimated to reach around US$300 million. “There have been several parties that offer loan, such as ADB, the World Bank, and Japan International Corporation Agency,” he added.
He expected that the transmission network construction should be started in 2012 in order to realize the power exchange target by 2015. PLN has established a similar partnership with the Serawak Electric Company (Sesco) to construct the electricity transmission network that connects Serawak and Pontianak.
--
Translated by: Ariyantri E. Tarman
