BANDUNG, October 27 (EngineeringDaily) -- Newly elected Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla has promised to build several new power plants over the next five years with a total capacity of 25,000 Megawatts (MW). Although there are no solid details yet, Kalla explained this plan will carried out throughout the country.

The Vice President’s plan is not without criticism, however. Director of PT PLN (Persero) Nur Pamudji Mega said Kalla’s plan would difficult to realize if there are no breakthroughs in its execution. A breakthrough is needed, said Pamudji, especially in land acquisition. At this time, many power plant projects are hampered by difficulties in land acquisition, such as one in Batang Regency in Central Java Province.

"Everything has to be executed quickly. Land must be obtained quickly. Funding sources should also be obtained quickly. How to accomplish all of that, we will have to determine together,” he said.

Another area that presents a major issue for the power plants is funding for their construction. In terms of costs, according to Pamudji, power plant construction investment requires an average of USD 1.5 million per MW, or a total of around USD 37.5 billion. To guarantee this amount of funding, some changes will need to be made in order to ensure the disbursement of funds from the government and creditors is not protracted.

"Of course, this plan requires that funding be tackled in a different way. We cannot continue using the same process as in the past," Pamudji said.

By Ismail Al Anshori