Indonesia will build cross-border transmission line with ADB financing

Transmission line will be 145 kilometers long.

Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank will build a cross-border power transmission line linking West Kalimantan, ndonesia with Sarawak, Malaysia.

The project will involve building a 145 km distribution line, distribution feeder extensions and a new substation to improve the reliability of power in West Kalimantan. An 83 km cross-border high-voltage transmission line and substation will connect the West Kalimantan power grid to that of neighboring Sarawak, Malaysia.

About 230 megawatt hours of power could be exchanged every hour between the two systems.

The interconnection project is expected to save Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), the Indonesian state-owned electricity company, some US$100 million annually in avoided oil generation.

ADB will support the project with a US$49.5 million loan. It will also administer a U$49.5 million loan provided by the French development agency, Agence Francaise de Development, and a US$2 million grant provided by the Multi-Donor Clean Energy Fund.

ADB is currently preparing a second loan project to finance the transmission line on the Malaysia side. Both countries have agreed to complete the construction by December 2014 with transmisssion starting from 1 January 2015.