PGE developing 10 geothermal projects

PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE), the geothermal arm of the state owned oil and gas company Pertamina, will develop more geothermal power plants in the country following the government?s decision to increase prices of electricity produced from geothermal power plants, Kontan daily reported on Tuesday.

PGE President Director Slamet Riyadi said that at present PGE produced 292 megawatt (MW) of electricity from the company?s several geothermal power plants in the country. In the near future, PLTP Ulubelu I and II geothermal power plants located in Ulubelu, Tenggamus, Lampung, with a capacity of 110 MW (2 x 55 MW) would begin commercial operation.

With the operation of the new geothermal power plants, PGE will produce 401 MW from geothermal power plants by the end of this year. The production is expected to further increase to 962 MW in 2016 and to 2,091 MW in 2020.

Slamet said at present the company was building 10 geothermal power plants in several provinces in the country and planned to further develop seven more geothermal fields to take the advantage of the government?s recent decision to increase feed in tariff for geothermal power supply to state electricity company PLN.

According to the new pricing policy, the prices will be different from one place to another. For Sumatra, the price is 10 US cent per kWh, while for Java, Madura and Bali, the price is 11 US cent per kWh.

In other provinces, the price is higher. The price is for example set at 12 US cent for South Sulawesi, 13 US cent for North Sulawesi, 15 US cent for West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara and 17 US cent for Maluku and Papua.

At present, the price is 9.7 US cent, depending on the negotiations with PLN. (*)