PLTGU Belawan resumes operation

State owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) announced on Tuesday it has resumed the operation of the Gas Turbine (GT) 2.2 power unit of the PLTGU Belawan combined cycle power plant in North Sumatra after completing the maintenance of the power unit.

The firm said the GT 2.2 power unit wit a capacity of 145 MW came back to operation again on Tuesday evening, after undergoing a major maintenance program called ?life time extension? (LTE), the firm said in a statement.

Before being shut down for maintenance, the power unit had been operating non stop for 100,000 hours.

The power unit will undergo a three-day reliability run test before starting a regular operation, the firm said, adding that while the operation of the power unit will alleviate the power shortage in the northern Sumatra, it won?t thoroughly solve the problem.

An ideal condition of a power system is if it has a capacity reserve of 30 percent. Now, the northern Sumatra power system, which supplies power to North Sumatra and Aceh provinces has a peak load of 1,700 MW. PLN is now building a coal fired power plant in Pangkalan Susu to add the power generation capacity of the system.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon