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)