05 Oct 2012 | Energy & Renewable Energy Panax Suggests Raised Geothermal Power Price of 33 %
BY Nurseffi Dwi Wahyuni & Wilda Asmarini
JAKARTA (IFT) - Panax Geothermal Limited, a company listed in the Australian Stock Exchange, suggests the raising of geothermal power price of 33 percent to PT PLN (Persero) from the geothermal power produced from three geothermal work areas managed by the company. Kerry Parker, Managing Director of Panax, said the adjustment is suggested based on feed-in tariff schematics for geothermal power price set by the government.
The three geothermal work areas owned by Panax in Indonesia are Sokoria (East Nusa Tenggara), Dairi Prima (North Sumatra) and Ngebel (East Java). The company partners with PT Bakrie Power, subsidiary of PT Bakrie & Brothers Tbk (BNBR) to manage the geothermal work areas. “The raising of geothermal power set by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources also creates an impact towards the new power tariff expected by the company,” Parker said.
Geothermal power price from the Sokoria geothermal power plant is targeted to increase to US$ 150 per megawatt hour (MWh)—including carbon credit, up 20 percent from US$ 125 per MWh, including carbon credit. Meanwhile, the power tariff from the Dairi Prima geothermal power plant is targeted to rise 13.5 percent to US$ per MWh, including carbon credit, from US$ 150 per MWh, including carbon credit. Meanwhile, the Ngebel geothermal power plant power price is targeted to climb 33 percent to US$ 120 per MWh, from US$ 90 per MWh. “We are still finalizing the raising of power price with PLN,” Parker said.
Based on the feed-in tariff from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, geothermal power price is estimated to increase an average of US$ 120 per MWh, from US$ 97 per MWh.
Feed-in tariff is adjusted with the location of the power plants. If the power plant is close to the transmission source, the power tariff is raised to average of US$ 120 per MWh, and raised to around US$ 145 per MWh if it is far from infrastructure access.
Panax Geothermal plans to increase the Ngebel power plant power capacity to 220 megawatts (MW), from 165 MW.
The company is the operator of the Sokoria power plant, but not the majority shareholder. Panax owns 45 percent stake in this power plant, with the remaining stake controlled by Bakrie Power. This power plant has capacity of 30 MW.
The company is the operator and majority shareholder of the Dairi Prima power plant (25 MW), with 51 percent stake. The remaining stake is owned by Bakrie Power. Meanwhile, Panax is also the operator of Ngebel power plant (165 MW), with stake of 35 percent. The remaining stake is controlled by Bakrie Power.
Meanwhile, Adiatma Sardjito, Corporate Secretary of PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy, subsidiary of PT Pertamina (Persero), said the company will renegotiate power selling price from several geothermal projects that are being developed and will be developed by the company.
Pertamina Geothermal requires US$ 4 billion to increase its geothermal power plants’ capacity to 2,000 MW by 2018. The existing capacity is at 292 MW. (*)
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