Sarulla unit 1 to start operation December

The first unit of the 3x110 MW Sarulla geothermal power plant in North Sumatra is now scheduled to start commercial operation in December of this year, a slight delay from earlier target of November.

This was announced by Yunus Saefulhak, Geothermal Director at the Directorate General of New and Renewable Energy in a statement issued Thursday.

He added that the second and third unit will start operation in 2017 and 2018, respectively. ?The total is 330 MW, this is a huge capacity, which can help resolve blackouts in Sumatra,? he said, adding that the US$1.5 billion project is dubbed as the world?s largest single-contract geothermal power plant, of which 80 percent of funding requirement comes from Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC).

The Sarulla Consortium comprises of Itochu Corporation and Kyushu Electric Power Co. Inc. of Japan, Ormat Technologies of the US, PT Medco Power Indonesia, a subsidiary of IDX-listed energy firm PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk, and Japanese firm Inpex Corp. In June of last year, Inpex acquired 49 percent of an affiliate of Medco in the Sarulla Geothermal Independent Power Producer (IPP) project.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak