Ansaldo to boost geothermal operations in Indonesia
Ansaldo to boost geothermal operations in Indonesia
JAKARTA (JP): Italy's giant power company Ansaldo Energia SpA
has extended its cooperation with state-owned machine
manufacturer PT PAL Persero to strengthen its presence in the
geothermal power sector in Indonesia, the company said yesterday.
Ansaldo's business development area manager for Asia and
Pacific, Nicola Monti, said Ansaldo had renewed its cooperation
agreement with PAL mid last month to coproduce geothermal power
machines, service geothermal power plants and codevelop
geothermal power projects in the country.
PAL is one of 10 companies under the Strategic Industries
Supervisory Agency, which is headed by State Minister of Research
and Technology B.J. Habibie.
He said Ansaldo first signed a cooperation agreement with PAL
in 1994 to allow PAL to coproduce and assemble whole geothermal
steam turbines designed by Ansaldo at its workshop in Surabaya.
The first agreement was an equipment, procurement and
construction cooperation contract.
"With the new agreement, we want to say that it does not only
involve us in geothermal power projects as an equipment,
procurement and construction contractor, but also involves us in
maintenance as well as developer of whole projects," Monti told
The Jakarta Post during the Electric Indonesia exhibition at the
Kemayoran Fairground, Central Jakarta.
"However, strengthening our position in geothermal power
projects in Indonesia does not mean we shall only focus on this
field and forget about others," Monti said, adding that the
company would also look into other business opportunities such as
in coal-fired, combined cycle and hydroelectric power plants.
The exhibition, which opened yesterday and runs to Saturday,
features 700 companies from the United States, Australia, the
Netherlands, Britain, Italy, Germany and Taiwan.
Steam turbines made by both companies have been installed at
three power units operated by PT PLN Pembangkitan Tenaga Listrik
Jawa-Bali I -- a subsidiary of state-owned electricity company
PLN -- and at Salak geothermal power plant on Mount Salak in West
Java.
The three power units, known as Salak 1, 2 and 3, have a
combined power capacity of 165 megawatts, the largest geothermal
capacity currently produced in the country.
According to government data, Indonesia only develops about
364.5 MW out of the country's potential 19,658 MW geothermal
capacity.
He said the largest power plant project in Indonesia, which
involved Ansaldo, was the coal-fired Jawa Barat power plant in
Cilegon. The 440 MW-power plant project is 45 percent owned by
Ansaldo, 45 percent by Sachsen Holdings BV (a subsidiary of the
United States NRG Energy Inc) and 10 percent by PT Fenergi Cipta
(a subsidiary of Nusamba Group).
However, the US$564.2 million power project was among the 13
power projects recently postponed by the government under the
rescheduling policy to cope with the current monetary crisis.
(jsk)