Government to appoint SOE to develop Danau Ranau geothermal area

After failing to obtain private investor during the past two tenders, the government has decided to appoint a state-owned enterprise (SOE) to develop the Danau Ranau geothermal working area in Sumatra, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

This was said by Director of Geothermal at the Directorate General of New and Renewable Energy, Yunus Saifulhak.

The government first held a tender in July of last year to select investor for the Danau Ranau geothermal project. Due to the lack of interest from investors, the government repeated the tender at the end of last year, which also failed to attract private investors.

Yunus said that the lack of interest from private investors because of the medium temperature of the working area, which will require investor to apply a special technology, thus making the project to be less economically feasible in the current price environment.

Yunus said, however, that state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina through subsidiary PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy has expressed interested in the Danau Ranau geothermal working area. He said the government is also considering other SOEs including electricity firm PT PLN and PT Geo DipaEnergi.

The Danau Ranau geothermal working area, with a potential to produce electricity with capacity of up to 110 MW, is located in Ogan Komering Ulu Selatan and Lampung Barat regencies, located in two provinces of Lampung and South Sumatra with area size of 8,561 ha and probable resources of 210 MW.(*)