The company signed a deal with North Sumatra Governor Edy Rahmayadi on August 26 to expedite the issuance of land and administrative permits for the plant, which will power is the Sei Mangkei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and Kuala Tanjung Industrial Zone.
“This deal marks the first step to beginning construction,” Hanlim chairman Paul Han R Lee.
Construction will begin in January 2021 at the latest, Edy said. The plant will be built in three equal stages of 1,600 MW each and is slated for full-capacity operations before Edy’s term ends on September 5, 2023.
He noted that the plant’s power would be directly distributed to the two zones, a decision that circumvents the legally sanctioned distribution monopoly of electricity giant PLN.
The state-owned firm has been unable to guarantee the distribution of the plant’s power as it had not finished its latest electricity procurement plan (RUPTL), Edy explained, adding that Hanlim would have moved the project to Vietnam unless development began soon.
The North Sumatra governor expects the plant’s operations to attract 250 investors, which would, in turn, create more job opportunities for the locals. The province has 345,000 unemployed residents, according to latest Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data.
Indonesia is banking on several SEZs and industrial zones to stoke the growth of domestic industries, which has seen its share of gross domestic product (GDP) steadily decline over the past few decades.
VietNamPlus