Indonesia turns to floating power stations to meet short-term needs

Casa Emtia Petrol Kimyevi ve Turevleri Sanayi ve Ticaret

08/12/2015 11:29

By Bernadette Christina Munthe 
    JAKARTA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Indonesia's president launched 
the first of five new floating power stations on Tuesday, to 
serve as a stop gap for the country's growing demand for power 
amid sluggish development of land-based plants. 
    Southeast Asia's largest economy has set an ambitious goal 
of building more than 35 gigawatts of power stations by 2019, 
the bulk of which are expected to be coal-powered.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1182KZ 
    However, the $50 billion mega project has made slow progress 
since it was launched by President Joko Widodo in April, due to 
difficulties in acquiring land among other reasons. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13638G urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13D2TZ 
    The vessels will mainly serve eastern Indonesia, an area 
that includes many remote islands to the east of Bali, including 
Sulawesi, Halmaherah, Maluku and Papua, which has suffered from 
slow development of power capacity. 
    "Every time I go to (outer) regions it's the same complaint: 
electricity crisis (and) blackouts," Widodo said at the launch 
of the floating power station in Jakarta. The next four vessels 
will be delivered over the next six months, he said. 
    "Because we are an archipelago, I think power stations on 
top of ships that are mobile like this are best for Indonesia," 
Widodo added, referring to the five vessels owned by a 
subsidiary of Turkey's Karadeniz Holdings, that will add around 
540 MW of capacity to the Indonesian grid. 
    Construction of a $4 billion, 2000-megawatt (MW) land-based 
Batang power station in Central Java has been held up by land 
acquisition problems since Japan's Electric Power Development Co 
Ltd  9513.T  won the contract in 2011.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N11Y10W 
    State electricity utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara 
(PLN) PLNEG.UL  sees the heavy fuel oil (HFO) powered floating 
power stations as a quick solution to meet power needs that will 
save costs in the short term, as heavy fuel oil is cheaper than 
diesel and gas. 
    "The 35,000 megawatt programme still needs a long time to 
generate electricity that the community needs," PLN CEO Sofyan 
Basir told reporters.  
    Power demand is growing at around 12 percent annually in 
eastern Indonesia, PLN director Machnizon Masri said, adding 
that the region would face further shortages over the next two 
years if nothing was done. 
    The largest of the five vessels on order, with a capacity to 
generate 240 MW, will be sent to North Sumatra, which has long 
faced power shortages due to slow progress completing projects, 
he said.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N0VK3GI 
    Under the deal, PLN will rent the vessels for five years and 
only pay for the electricity they generate, Masri said. 
    "This is cheaper than gas. We can save 350 billion rupiah 
($25.23 million) a year if we use these in North Sulawesi and 
Gorontalo," he said. 
         
 ($1 = 13,870 rupiah) 
 
 (Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Susan Fenton) 
 ((fergus.jensen@thomsonreuters.com; +62 21 2992 7604; Reuters 
Messaging: fergus.jensen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: INDONESIA POWER/