BCPG to invest in I’nesia geothermal power
RENEWABLE-POWER company BCPG plans to invest in geothermal power business in Indonesia through acquisition of equity in Singapore-based Star Energy Group Holdings, with total power production capacity equivalent to 995 megawatts.
BCPG expects the sale and purchase process to be completed this quarter, after which the projects will realise profits immediately.
BCPG president Bundit Sapianchai said that on Tuesday, the board of directors gave its approval for the company to enter an agreement to invest in geothermal power in Indonesia, subject to the final approval from BCPG’s shareholders.
Through the investment, BCPG will hold indirect equity in three geothermal projects with total power-production capacity equivalent to 182MW.
The equity details are 20 per cent in the 347MW Wayang Windu Power Plant (227MW of which is already in operation), 17.3 per cent in Salak Power Plant, with a total production capacity of 377MW equivalent of electricity and steam, and 17.3 per cent in Darajat Power Plant, with a total production capacity of 271MW equivalent of electricity and steam. The latter two are already in commercial operation.
All the projects have long-term feed-in-tariff contracts with Indonesia’s state-owned power company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).
BCPG plans to invest US$357.5 million (about Bt12.3 billion) in this project. Funds will be raised from the company’s cash flow, and from loans for which many leading financial institutions have already expressed interest.
An extraordinary shareholders’ general meeting will be held on June 13 to seek final investment approval from the company’s shareholders.
“We strongly believe that the investment will help enhance BCPG’s long-term stability and is in line with BCPG’s business-growth strategy to diversify into other forms of renewable energy and into other countries, in addition to solar and wind power businesses in Thailand, Japan and the Philippines,” Bundit said.
“As a leading company in renewable business from Thailand, BCPG is keen to invest in geothermal energy, which is a stable resource with continuous around-the-clock supply.
“Moreover, BCPG can also leverage the expertise in exploration and production business of our parent company, Bangchak Corporation.
“With this investment, BCPG’s total [production capacity] will be over 600MW. If we were to make calculations based on the fact that the investment money and production capacity of geothermal power is three times that of solar power, I think we can safely say that we will have a total production capacity of almost 1,000MW of solar power equivalent.”
