Indonesia Power to boost Kamojang power plant capacity to 200 MW
Monday, February 5 2001 - 04:00 AM WIB
PT Indonesia Power, a subsidiary of state electricity company PT PLN, is conducting a feasibility study to increase the capacity of the Kamojang, West Java geothermal power plant from 140 MW now to 200 MW.
Indonesia Power's corporate secretary Lili Tjarli Tahlan said the increase in Kamojang power generation capacity was to help strengthen the supply in the Java-Bali electricity network.
"We will develop it together with state oil and gas company Pertamina. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed and we are currently conducting the feasibility study," Lili said.
Lili predicted that the construction of the additional generators for Kamojang would be completed and be ready to supply electricity to the Java-Bali system in year 2003.
PLN has predicted that electricity demand in Java and Bali will continue to increase, and if PLN does not anticipate it by increasing its power generation capacity, there could be a power glut in this territory in the next few years.
The Kamojang power plant started producing electricity in October 1982, with initial production capacity of 30 MW. This capacity was boosted to 140 MW in 1998 when PLN built two units of power generations, each with capacity of 55 MW.
All of the Kamojang electricity has been sold to PLN. But the next supply of 60 MW electricity from Kamojang would be sold to private entities, and not PLN, Lili said.
Initial study shows that it would need a total investment of Rp 45 billion to increase Kamojang power capacity by 60 MW. And it would need at least 36 geothermal wells to generate 60 MW power.
Lili noted that geothermal energy in Kamojang was still enough to increase the production capacity of Kamojang power plant by 60 MW. "We can even increase Kamojang power capacity to 225 MW because of the availability of geothermal power in this area."
PT Indonesia Power, previously named PT PLN Pembangkitan Jawa-Bali I, currently operates 130 power plants of various sizes, with combined production capacity of 9,000 MW. (*)