Surabaya, E Java (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian shipyard company, PT PAL, is developing a floating power plant to meet the electricity needs of people in remote islands as well as to support the governments program of building a 35 megawatts power plant.

The Executive Director of PT PAL, M Firmansyah Arifin, said here on Friday that he was still waiting to know how much electricity the national electricity state-owned company, PLN, needed from the plant.

"We set up a floating power plant in 1996 but it was of low capacity. If PLN asks for a plant of higher capacity, we are well prepared because the foundation is already there for it," Arifin said.

Arifin explained that technically, constructing a floating power plant was not difficult for PT PAL as it has reliable resources.

"A floating power plant made by PT PAL was functional in some areas such as in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami and also in some remote islands in Indonesia, which are beyond the reach of the electricity grid," he said.

With its experience, Arifin remarked, PT PAL can easily improve upon the capacity and size of the power generation plant needed to support the national electricity program.

Earlier, PLN had rented a floating Gas Power Plant with a capacity of 120 megawatts from Turkey for five years, with a contract value of Rp1,850 per kWh (kilo watt hour).

Indonesia needs floating power plants to meet the electricity needs of people living in its 17,000 islands.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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