Low Carbon News in Indonesia in March 2015
Batu City to Build Waste Treatment Facility for Domestic Waste
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta 04 March 2015
Batu city administration is set to form a regional technical executive (UPTD) to manage domestic waste produced by the city. “All domestic wastes should be treated, not to be disposed onto the river,” said Batu Deputy Mayor, Eddy Rumpoko. The Deputy Mayor had signed the Mayor Regulation No 19/2014 concerning the domestic waste UPTD. Facilities have been built and manpower has been trained to perform the task. The waste will be treated to obtain methane gas and bio-slurry to be used as fertilizers while the waste water will be treated so that it meets the quality standard for disposal onto river.
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E. Kalimantan to build nuclear power plant
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, March 17 2015, 6:48 PM
The East Kalimantan administration plans to build a nuclear power plant in 2016 to meet the electricity needs of several areas of the province, an official has said. East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek Ishak said the administration had allocated adequate funds for feasibility studies for the plant’s construction, which could potentially attract investment from the central government in the 2016 regional budget. The planned nuclear plant would be built in Talisayan, Berau regency, as outlined in the memorandum of understanding (MoU)signed between the East Kalimantan administration and the National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan) recently, he said. “The first step is to carry out a feasibility study. Hopefully the central government will allocate funds from the state budget to help construct the plant,” Awang said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.
The governor said part of the study would center on calculating the exact amount of funds needed to build the plant, which would be calculated by administration officials themselves. Awang added that the project would be a significant contributor to the national energy sector. “The condition was if the central government wanted to exploit East Kalimantan’s fossil fuel potential, they must compensate it by building nuclear power plant,” he said. The administration chose Berau as the site of the plant as it was considered “safe”, especially from earthquakes. The area was also said to have wide openspaces and easy access to the sea.
Link:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/17/e-kalimantan-build-nuclear-power-plant.html
PLN mega power plant projects to commence soon
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, March 18 2015, 6:00 AM
The government will soon commence the construction of mega power plants in Java and Sumatra that will have a combined capacity of 10,000 megawatts (MW). The project constitutes the first phase of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s ambitious plan to build 35,000 MW power plants during his five-year term. Sofyan Basir, president director of state-owned electricity company PLN, said his company would sign contracts for the development of the 10,000 MW power plants as early as next month.
Total investment in the power plants and their supporting electricity infrastructure is estimated at Rp 200 trillion (US$15.2 billion), which would be built by PLN and independent power producers (IPPs), he said after meeting with Jokowi and other top economic ministers on Tuesday. PLN plans to cover up to 30 percent of the cost, with the rest coming from private investors.
Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during the presidential campaign ahead of his first term as president starting in 2004, pledged to build around 10,000 megawatts in power plants. He achieved that goal after five years. Jokowi’s ambitious pledge could pose economic risks, economists have warned, noting the potential for a deterioration of the current-account deficit, as most of the material used in the plants was imported. Power plant projects would be the biggest absorber of machinery imports — including goods like boilers, turbines and transformers — with the amount of overseas purchases standing at $4 billion annually, or about 0.3 percent of Indonesia’s expected gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, according to a calculation from Citigroup.
Commenting on the issue, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Soesilo said the government would endeavor to promote local content in electricity infrastructure, including a requirement for companies involved in the development of power plants to utilize more locally manufactured goods. “I would ask [for investors] to utilize more local content. At the moment, local content in power plants are around 40 percent and in electricity transmission infrastructure around 60 percent.
Link:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/18/pln-mega-power-plant-projects-commence-soon.html