Surprise From The President Of Kala Overview Of Kayan Hydro Energy Hydroelectric Power Plant Development

Monitoring from the helicopters for the construction of the Kayan Hydro Energy hydropower plant (Photo: Documents of the Kayan Hydro Energy Hydro Power Plant)

TARAKAN - President Joko Widodo has checked over the air the location of the Kayan Hydro Energy hydropower plant in Peso District, Bulungan, North Kalimantan, Thursday afternoon, December 19 yesterday. The president flew from Juwata Airport on a presidential helicopter accompanied by a number of ministers and the Governor of North Kalimantan, Irianto Lambrie.

Governor Irianto Lambrie said President Jokowi was pleased to see the progress of the Kayan Hydro Energy hydropower project. Even more interesting, said Irianto, the president also reviewed the location of the Kayan Hydro Energy PLTA Dam II construction point. Even though in the schedule, the president is planned to only look at the point of construction of the Kayan Hydro Enegy Hydroelectric Power Plant I Dam.

"After the field, after he (the President) made a visit by helicopter from the air, he was very enthusiastic, and happy because there was progress from the field," said Irianto in Tarakan, East Kalimantan, Thursday, December 19.

"The president advised him to monitor the Kayan Hydro E`nergy hydropower project. In fact, during the air visit, he asked the group to be escorted to the Dam II point. That is outside of his schedule of review," continued Irianto.

Meanwhile, Operational Director of Kayan Hydro Energy, Khaerony explained, currently the Kayan Hydro Energy hydropower development process is in the stage of supporting infrastructure development. This supporting infrastructure development includes offices, mess, warehouse and roads. This process has been going on for two months.

The supporting infrastructure development process has been running for the last two months. The process is not without obstacles. Of the total road needs of 20 kilometers, the construction has only reached 4.5 kilometers. The obstacle is because there are rocks that have to be blown up to build the road.

The location for the construction of the Kayan Hydro Energy hydropower plant when visited by President Joko Widodo (Photo: Documents of the Kayan Hydro Energy PLTA)

For this development, PT Kayan Hydro Energy has deployed 12 units of heavy equipment. Consisting of, 7 units of excavators, 2 units of bulldozers and the rest are dump trucks. Khaerony said that this heavy equipment was used for the construction of the road body to Dam 1.

It is not an easy matter to send heavy equipment to the construction site of the Kayan Hydro Energy hydropower project. There are many large rocks in the river so that it needs to be deepened by means of dredging. This dredging is so that the river can be used to support unit mobilization and logistics activities. The unit and logistics mobilization traffic temporarily uses a landing craft tank (LCT) through the Kayan river.

Khaerony explained that heavy equipment could not be sent by land because the existing roads and bridges were not sufficient for heavy vehicles to pass through.

On the other hand, he added, the construction of the Kayan Hydro Energy hydropower plant received a positive response from the community. This project, he continued, involved local communities because they were also employed as heavy equipment operators, unskilled workers, and others.

This characteristic of the Kayan river is perfect for making PLTA Kayan Hydro Energy because the water discharge reaches 1,700 cubic meters / second. Plus, the upstream of this river is also supported by the Kayan Mentarang National Park covering an area of 1.35 million hectares. So, the Kayan Hydro Energy PLTA can not only guarantee electricity in North Kalimantan, but also the construction of the new state capital in North Penajam Paser.

The construction of the Kayan River hydropower plant was marked by a cooperation contract between PT Kayan Hydro Energy and Powerchina International Group which was signed on October 31, 2018. Then, on Thursday, August 15, 2019, the two companies signed the project implementation.

The signing was carried out at the KSP Office, under the direct supervision of the Presidential Chief of Staff (KSP), Moeldoko. At that time, Moeldoko said, the agreement signed covered three national strategic projects in North Kalimantan, including the construction of the Kayan River hydropower plant.

The Kayan River Hydroelectric Power Plant, which is built on an area of 12,000 hectares, is projected to generate an electricity capacity of 9,000 megawatts from five dams being built in stages.

The first dam is projected to produce 900 megawatts. Furthermore, construction will be carried out on the second dam with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, the third and fourth dams which each produce 1,800 megawatts and the fifth dam with 3,200 megawatts.