Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government on Thursday raised the selling price of biomass energy to Rp975 per Kwh from Rp666 per Kwh previously.

The price hike was an agreement reached at a recent meeting of the government, businessmen and state power utilities PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), Director General of Renewable New Energy at the Energy and Mineral Resources Kardaya Warnika said here on Thursday.

"The price is an agreement among the government, PLN, businessmen and associations facilitated by EBTKE and is not set by the government itself," Kardaya said.

Given the agreement, PLN could no longer bargain with the government over the price of biomass energy. Therefore, there was no reason for PLN to refuse to buy electrical power from biomass power producer, he said.

On the occasion, Darma Bakti, PLN senior manager for alternative energy said he agreed with the new tariff.

"PLN will surely carry out what the government has decided. I think the price is quite reasonable at this moment," he said.

PLN has bought 6 MW of electrical power from biomass power producer PT Navigat Organik Indonesia at the Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java. The figure is a half of the company`s overall power production it will sell to PLN under a power purchase contract.

The Bantar Gebang landfill has the capacity of producing 10 MW of electrical power which will be raised to 26 MW. Meanwhile, the Suwung landfill in Bali has the capacity of producing 2-4 MW which will be increased to 10 MW.
(T.KR-IAZ/S012/HAJM/S012)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011