Government plans second series of 10.000 MW plants

The government is drawing up a program to build a second series of power plants with a combined capacity of 10,000 MW across the country to keep up with the mounting public need for electricity according to Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro
Some aspects of the program were disclosed by Yusgiantoro following a meeting on acceleration of the first 10,000-MW power plants project at the vice presidential office in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The government had decided to set up another series of power plants with a total capacity of 10,000 MW because domestic demand for electricity was growing fast. "In a number of regions outside Java, the need for electricity is now growing at almost 10% per year," the minister said.
While the first series of power plants were all coal-fired, the second series would only consist of 30% of coal-fired plants. The remainder would be made up of geothermal, hydropower and other types of power generating facilities, he said. The geothermal power plants would have a total potential of 27,000 MW and the hydropower facilities 60,000 MW with the rest to be provided by plants running on new and renewable energy sources.
About the time it would take to build the additional power plants, the minister said it would be a 'multi-year project' that would transcend the five-year term of any single administration. The project was estimated to require a total investment of between $8 and 9 billion, he added.