Government Will Replace Natural Gas In Sumbagut With Hydropower Plant

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) plans to take advantage of the potential of hydropower and PLTM in the North Sumatra (Sumbagut) region. Later this PLTM d hydropower plant will replace the role of natural gas.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin Tasrif said, currently there is the potential for PLTA and PLTM development which is ready for cooperation or Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), amounting to 5,087.26 Megawatts in Aceh and North Sumatra.

"We use it as much as possible. If the big hydropower plant takes a long time, but if the hydropower plant is medium and small, it can usually be faster. For example, North Sumatra is the one we focus on to be able to take advantage of PLTMH first," said Arifin to the media quoted Monday, August 5.

The reason is, at this time, to turn on electricity in Sumbagut, it is necessary to send 16 cargoes of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Papua to Arun in Aceh.

Then from Arun it was transferred to Belawan in North Sumatra for a power plant.

"Actually, there (Sumbagut) still has a lot of hydro potential, we are accelerating this. Just imagine, yes, in the Aceh and North Sumatra areas there is a potential of around 5 gigawatts, 5,000 megawatts," he said.

Of this potential, what has been accommodated in the draft General Electric Power Supply Plan (RUPTL) 2024-2033 is 586 MW for the North Sumatra region, taking into account supply balance and demand in the Sumbagut region.

However, there are no additional hydropower quotas or PLTM in the Aceh region because there are still transmission infrastructure constraints. Therefore, Arifin encourages the development of transmission from private business entities.

"Transmission must be built a lot, and PLN doesn't have to be built, but we also hope that the private sector can enter with mutually beneficial cooperation. If it's not profitable, no one wants to enter," he said.

In addition to the PLTA and PLTM quota in North Sumatra, in the 2024-2033 ROUTPL draft, there is a PLTA quota spread across Sumatra with a capacity of 1,200 MW. The potential for hydropower and PLTM in Aceh and North Sumatra can be developed using the PLTA and PLTM quotas spread across Sumatra.

As for the draft RUPTL 2024-2033, for the Aceh region, there is a potential for PLTA/PLTM of 3,507.95 MW, which is divided into priority 1 of 1,694.01 MW; priority 2 of 1,463.38; and others of 459.86 MW.

Apart from the draft RUPTL, there is also a project potential from the proposed business entity (BU) of 1,719.21 MW for priority projects 1; 969.95 MW for priority 2; 19.5 MW for priority 3; and 112.6 for other priorities, so the total project potential is 2,836.46 MW.

Meanwhile, for the North Sumatra region, there is a potential project of 1,579.31 MW, divided into priority 1 as much as 207.4 MW; priority 2 is 517.62 MW; priority 3 is 1 MW; and others are 701.89 MW.

BU's proposal in the North Sumatra region consists of 549.2 MW priority 1; 581.4 MW priority 2; and 19.4 MW other priorities. So that the total proposed business entity for projects in North Sumatra reached 1,135 MW.