The Jakarta Globe
Friday, July 3, 2009

by Nurdin Hasan

Banda Aceh: The German government has agreed to assist the Aceh administration in exploring the possibility of using geothermal energy to help solve local power shortages, Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf said on Wednesday.

Irwandi said the German government had already disbursed seven million euros ($9.8 million) to the national government and the chief of the National Development Planning Agency, Paskah Suzetta, had agreed to pass the funds on to Aceh soon.

“Seven million euros is the amount I negotiated for when I met with Germany’s minister of economic assistance in 2007,” Irwandi said. “I asked for the funds and they agreed because of Aceh’s accomplishments in protecting the environment.”

He said the logging moratorium he introduced in mid-2007, which he claimed had saved more than 500,000 hectares of Aceh’s forests from devastation, had influenced Germany’s decision.

Initially, the planning agency wanted the funds to be handed over to state-owned power company PLN.

“But when I met Paskah, I informed him of the origin of the funds and asked him not to make us labor in vain by allowing PLN to use the funds,” Irwandi said. “And Paskah said no problem.”

“Now there is another potential problem with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, which the national government wants to handle the tender,” he said, adding that a 2006 law on Aceh’s autonomy allowed the provincial government to conduct its own tenders.

Irwandi said the ministry had argued in favor of the national government’s desire to have it handle the tender by citing the example of a geothermal project in West Java, where the local administration lacked the necessary technical expertise.

“If that’s the problem, it’s easy. The ministry can assist us technically, but the project belongs to the Aceh government,” Irwandi said, adding that he hoped the project tender could be commenced immediately.