PLN to build CNG and LNG facilities

In order to further reduce the use of oil fuel, state owned electricity company PLN plans to build a number of compressed natural gas (LNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities at the company?s power plants which still use oil as its fuel.

Nasri Sebayang, PLN?s Director for Construction said that the CNG and LNG receiving facilities would be portable so that they could be moved from one power plant to another. ?Facilities will be used to enable PLN to benefit from the company?s small gas contracts,? he added as quoted by Kontan daily.

Last year, about 23 percent of PLN?s electricity supply was generated by power plant using oil, while that generated by power plants using gas was only 21 percent. This year, PLN is to reduce the use of oil fuel to 14 percent while raising the use of gas to 23 percent.

One of power plants, which is equipped with a CNG storage is PLTA Sungai Gelam hydropower plant in Jambi with a capacity of 60 megawatt. PLN will use 4.5 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) from a gas field in the province. ?The facility is now under construction and is expected to be completed in August or September, this year,? he added.

Furthermore, in 2012, PLN will also build a power plant with an LNG facility in Bengkanai Kalimantan to produce 240 MW of electricity. The facility will need 18 MMSCFD of gas.

According to Nasri, PLN will use LNG and CNG to fire power generators with a capacity of 4 MW and 5MW during middle-load and to fire generators between 16 MW and 20 MW during peak-load.

To increase gas usage, PLN will use 130 MMSCFD of gas supply from Terang Sirasin Batur field which is operated by Kangean Energy Indonesia Ltd. About 30 to 50 MMSCFD of the total gas supply will be used to produce LNG and CNG, while the remaining will be supplied to Granti and Gresik power plants. (*)