Salak power plant starts operation
Salak power plant starts operation
JAKARTA (JP): The third unit at the geothermal plant in Salak
mountain in West Java owned by PT Pembangkitan Tenaga Listrik
Jawa-Bali I (PJB I) has started commercial operation.
Ansaldo Energy of Italy, which supplied the unit's machinery
and built the plant, said yesterday that the 55 Megawatt (MW)
power unit came on stream on schedule in late August.
The vice president of Ansaldo Asia-Pacific, Carlo Del Corso,
told The Jakarta Post that the new power unit, called Salak 3,
was the third built by Ansaldo for PJB 1, a subsidiary of the
State Electricity Company, PLN.
Ansaldo had earlier built the Salak 1 and 2 power units, each
also with 55 MW capacities, Del Corso said.
He said the development of the Salak 3 power unit was financed
with US$55 million in export credit from Italian banks, while
Salak 1 and 2 were funded with $88 million in export credits and
a bilateral loan from the Italian government.
Del Corso said Salak 3 marked an important step for the local
industry as it was the first geothermal power unit to use a large
percentage of local components.
"The local content of the machinery at Salak 3 reached 25
percent," he said, adding that the power unit used a steam
turbine which was partly manufactured and wholly assembled at
state-owned the PT PAL workshop in Surabaya, East Java.
According to Del Corso, PAL and Ansaldo have signed a
cooperation agreement to manufacture machinery for geothermal
plants.
PAL is under the supervision of the Indonesian Agency for
Strategic Industries, headed by State Minister of Research and
Technology B.J. Habibie.
The Salak geothermal power plant will become the largest in
the country with six power units with a total installed capacity
of 330 MW power when complete. The other three power units --
Salak 4,5 and 6 -- each with a capacity of 55 MW, are being
developed by Unocal Geothermal Indonesia. They are expected to
come on stream soon.
Del Corso said that besides the power units at Salak, Ansaldo
had also completed a 60 MW power unit in Dieng, Central Java, for
a consortium controlled by California Energy of the United
States. This unit is now at the commissioning stage. (jsk)