Sarulla geothermal plant fails to meet Dec 26 COD target

By Godang Sitompul

Sarulla Geothermal

The Sarulla unit one geothermal power plant with capacity of 110 MW in Tapanuli Utara Regency, North Sumatra Province, failed to meet the commercial operation date (COD) target of December 26 as commissioning stage has yet to be completed.

A source told Petromindo.com on Wednesday that the plant is still undergoing testing process, although state-owned electricity firm PT PLN has already started receiving electricity supply from the project.

?PLN gets electricity for free from Sarulla Operations Ltd. (SOL),? the source said, referring to Sarulla Operations Ltd, a consortium developing the Sarualla geothermal power plant project.

SOL is a consortium comprising of PT Medco Power Indonesia (27.5%), Ormat Technologies (12.75%), Japan based Itochu (25%) and Kyushu Electric (25%). The consortium will also build a second and third unit, each with capacity of 110 MW, which respectively expected to start operation in 2017 and 2018.

President Director of Medco Power, Fazil E. Alfitri, told Petromindo.com mid-December that the first unit was scheduled for COD on December 26.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak