COD of Sarulla geothermal power plant slightly postponed to end-December

By Febry Silaban

ESDM

The commercial operation date (COD) of the first unit of the Sarulla geothermal power plant, located in Tapanuli Utara Regency of North Sumatra Province, is scheduled to start up in December, a slight delay from the earlier schedule of November, according to an official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

?The COD of the project has been rescheduled to December 29, 2016,? Director of Geothermal at the ministry Yunus Safulhak said to Petromindo.com on Wednesday.

Previously, Murdiono, Business and Development Director of PT Ormat Geothermal Indonesia, subsidiary of U.S based leading geothermal company Ormat Technologies, Inc., which is part of the consortium developing the geothermal plant, stated that the power plant had entered the commissioning phase.

"It has entered the commissioning phase since July 2016, and so far so good and is expected to be COD in November," he said.

Murdiono reiterated that the power plant uses Ormat's Geothermal Combined Cycle Units (GCCU), which are more efficient than conventional steam power plants. GCCU are designed to generate power from high-pressure geothermal steam resources.

The Sarulla geothermal power plant will have an installed capacity of 330MW, being developed in three phases, each 110 MW capacity, the first of which slated to start commercial operation this year. The other two phases are expected to be commissioned in 2017 and 2018.

Sarulla Operations Ltd. (SOL), is a consortium comprising of PT Medco Energi International (27.5%), Ormat Technologies (12.75%), Japan based Itochu (25%) and Kyushu Electric (25%).

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak