CPI plans biomass power plants in W. Sumatra
Tuesday, December 20 2016 - 08:33 AM WIB
PT Clean Indonesia Power (CPI) plans to develop three biomass power plants in three villages with combined capacity of 700 KW on Siberut Island, Mentawai Islands Regency, West Sumatra Province, using bamboo as feedstock.
CPI President Director Jaya Wahono said on Monday that the three power plants will be off-grid and to be developed with the participation of local villagers.
He said to Petromindo.com that initially, the project will be focused in three villages. ?There are 20 villages there,? he said, adding that construction process will start ?soon.?
Jaya explained that the biomass power plant will require 1.5 kg of bamboo to produce 1 kWh of power, much cheaper compared to the 1 liter of diesel fuel required by diesel-fired power plant to produce the same volume of electricity. He said that the electricity from the biomass power plants will be much cheaper, which should be beneficial for low income people.
He said that as Siberut is a tropical island, with rains throughout the year, bamboo feedstock supply will not be a problem.
To help finance the projects, CPI has obtained a five-year US$300 million grant facility from Millennium Challenge Account Indonesia, an agency developed in cooperation between the US and the Indonesian government via the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas).
CPI has previously built a bamboo-based biomass power plant with capacity of 10 MW in Bali with total investment US$30 million. The company is currently in discussion with state-owned electricity firm PT PLN for the price of the electricity to be sold the latter as the power plant is ongrid. Jaya said the company plans to develop transmission network in cooperation with PLN.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak