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Sat, 19 Nov 2005

JP/Chevron to launch geothermal power plant

Chevron to launch geothermal power plant

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Bandung

U.S. energy giant Chevron is ready to launch a 110-megawatt (MW) geothermal power plant project in Garut, West Java, after a team was set up to hopefully resolve a variety of problems with the local administration.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro will preside over the opening of the Dradjat 3 project on Nov. 29, the company's local unit president Wahyudin Yudiana said here on Thursday on the sidelines of a symposium held by the Association of Indonesian Oil Engineering Experts (IATMI).

"We can resolve the problems with the Garut administration," said Yudiana. "We have a team, which includes people from the local administration as well as the central government, to find the best solutions regarding their wishes," he explained, but did not go into the specifics of the problems encountered.

Yudiana said the electricity produced by the plant, the third of its kind in the complex after the 55-MW Dradjat 1 and 90-MW Dradjat 2, would be sold to the state power firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).

"The price will be above 4 U.S. cents (per kilowatthour)," said Yudiana.

The construction of the Dradjat 3 plant was already commenced at the beginning of the year, with operations scheduled to begin in the second semester of 2006, he said.

Geothermal resources in Dradjat are abundant, clean, renewable and able to easily generate up to 330 MW of electrical power. Currently, more than half of the area's geothermal resources remain untapped.

Next year, Chevron will also conduct a feasibility study on the possibility of building a fourth geothermal power plant in the same area, said Yudiana.

Located in the "ring of fire" volcano belt, Indonesia is thought to have about 40 percent of the world's geothermal reserves, equivalent to a total of 27,140 MW of power.

While the country has several operational geothermal power plants, their combined capacity currently is only 807 MW or about 3 percent of the country's total geothermal potential.