PLN Welcomes The Poso Hydroelectric Power Plant, Which Has Just Been Inaugurated By Jokowi, This Is The Specialty Of The Hydropower Plant Owned By The Jusuf Kalla Family

Photo: Doc. PLN

JAKARTA - The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, has just inaugurated the Poso Hydroelectric Power Plant (PLTA), which is listed as the largest new renewable energy (EBT) generator in Eastern Indonesia. The power plant with a capacity of 515 Mega Watt (MW) will later become a peaker generator that will be operated during peak load times in the Southern Sulawesi system.

PLN President Director Darmawan Prasodjo said that the presence of a power plant that utilizes the Poso River water flow coincided with the momentum of many smelter industries entering the PLN electricity system in Southern Sulawesi.

"PLN is committed to continuing to support industrial development, particularly the mining product processing industry, by providing reliable clean energy options," said Darmawan, Friday, February 25.

The industrial need for green electricity as one of the export requirements can be met by the inclusion of the Poso hydropower plant in the Sulawesi system.

The first factor, this plant has a large enough live storage, namely Lake Poso. In addition, PLTA Poso is equipped with a regulating dam that can regulate the output discharge from Lake Poso. As a result, the plant can operate at full capacity during peak hours throughout the year.

"The Poso hydropower plant is able to start and stop quickly, even synchronization can be done in less than 15 minutes. So it is able to respond to changes in load quickly so as to improve the quality of electricity in the network system," said Darmawan.

In contrast to hydropower plants in general, which use a reservoir concept, which requires a large area of land, hydropower plants in Poso use a run-off river (ROR) management system. This system maintains river flow for 24 hours, using only small dams or levees as barriers or water gates.

"We only borrow, we diversion the river water a little around the river side, we plunge it into the turbine, then return it to the river system," said Darmawan.

From the aspect of developing renewable energy, PLTA Poso contributes about 10.69 percent of the total EBT mix for the Southern Sulawesi electricity system.

In addition to the Poso hydropower plant, President Jokowi today inaugurated the 90 MW Malea hydropower plant in Tana Roraja, South Sulawesi. This power plant was developed by PT Malea Energy, a subsidiary of PT Bukaka Teknik Utama which also belongs to the Kalla Group. The operation of these two power plants has increased the NRE mix in Sulawesi Island by 38.8 percent.

Kalla Group's Advisory Board, Jusuf Kalla said the hydropower plant that was built by his party absorbed up to 2,000 workers. As many as 80 percent of these workers come from local residents.

"Only the chief engineer came, who had experience. The rest was all done by the nation's children. The Domestic Component Level (TKDN) was also large," said Jusuf Kalla.