Potentially Replace Coal, Government Boosts PLTP Development

PLTP illustration (Photo; Doc. PLN)

JAKARTA - The government has accelerated the use of geothermal energy as a source of clean energy. Director General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE), Eniya Listiani Dewi, explained that the government continues to boost the development of geothermal power plants because they can be compared to baseload plants such as coal.

"In terms of stable renewable energy delivery needs or we can equate it with the baseload as a substitute for coal, we focus the government's push to hydropower and geothermal," said Eniya at the Enery Corner, Thursday, September 19.

He further said that geothermal power plants have been mapped in the National Electricity General Plan (RUKN) and the Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL) to see the geothermal potential that must be maximized until we go to net zero emissions. RI has the potential for geothermal energy of 24 GW which will be maximized from year to year.

Moreover, he said, the government is targeting to increase the capacity of Geothermal Power Plants (PLTP) by 90 MW in the remainder of 2024.

With the addition of 90 MW, RI has reached 2688 megawatts which have been installed.

"Now we will continue to encourage this to be maximized, so that the potential for geothermal can be a substitute, so the main thing is the baseload," explained Eniya.

He detailed that the increase in capacity of 90 MW consisted of three PLTP projects targeted to start operating in December 2024.

This year, the additional capacity comes from the Salak Binary PLTP with a capacity of 15 MW with the current EPC progress of 95.5 percent.

Then the Balawan PLTP Ijen unit 1 amounted to 34 MW with the current EPC progress of 92.02 percent.

Third, PLTP Sorik Marapi unit 5 of 40 MW with the current EPC progress of 87 percent.

By the end of 2024, the government has identified 362 geothermal hotspots with a potential of 23.6 GW. A total of 62 Geothermal Working Areas and 12 Preliminary and Exploration Survey Assignments have been prepared.

In addition, the government has issued 16 geothermal permits, assigned 14 assignments to SOEs, as well as 13 preliminary and exploration survey assignments.