T

he Directorate General for New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, with support from the EU-Indonesia Trade Cooperation Facility (TCF), is preparing a waste-to-energy (WTE) guidebook providing a truly comprehensive, step-by-step guide to WTE projects in Indonesia.

The guidebook will soon be published in hard copy and on the project'€™s website, www.euind-tcf.com.

The guidebook is part of a project jointly implemented by the ministry and the TFC, a four-year EU-supported project partnering with Indonesian government organizations to enhance economic development through trade and investment.

The TFC said it began to review and enhance the feed-in tariff regime, increase capacity of local government and ministry officials in WTE project development, improve the regulatory environment and develop better incentives to encourage investment in WTE projects in 2013.

TFC team leader Joe Miller said that the guidebook would help to bridge a very obvious knowledge gap and would provide local government officials and potential investors with '€œan invaluable source of information and practical assistance in such matters as using waste material as a feedstock for gas and power generation, the legal and regulatory background to waste-to-energy in Indonesia, current waste management and landfill methods and technologies, as well as the associated health, safety and environmental issues.

'€œIndonesia has to find waste-to-energy solutions suited to the situation in Indonesia, not off-the-shelf technology developed for other conditions elsewhere,'€ said Miller.

Internationally, WTE is big business and a recurring theme of the guidebook is the need for Indonesia to find and apply solutions and technologies appropriate to its own, local needs, which may vary from region to region and from one municipality to another.

'€œWaste-to-energy is a complex field and one in which the offers of technology suppliers to provide off-the-shelf answers to all problems have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt.'€

The guidebook urges careful research and caution in investment decisions to ensure that solutions are viable both technically and economically, and offer best value for money.

Accelerating progress in waste-to-energy

According to the TFC, responding to increasing energy demands, the Indonesian government recently set itself a target of producing 35,000 megawatts (MW) of power to support economic growth of

7 percent per annum, an objective which requires an estimated US$35 billion in investment over the next five years.

It said that given a positive legal and regulatory environment for investors, which the new Presidential Regulation No. 38/2015 on public private partnerships will help to foster, the future looks bright for WTE projects in Indonesia and their ability to contribute to this challenging target.

'€œThe country is generating and will continue to generate the types of waste required for waste-to-energy and its climate provides the right conditions for the waste to break down and produce the gas needed to generate electricity.

'€œAnd, crucially, there is no shortage of private-sector interest in the sector ready to supply the investment, know-how and technology required.'€

The TFC questioned how Indonesia would accelerate what has been, so far, quite sluggish progress nationally in the area, as well as how it would convert all these favorable indicators into actual operational WTE plants, reducing the waste mountain and contributing to the national energy balance.

It said that the process has started and is gathering pace. '€œSome local [administrations] are exploring the waste-to-energy options in their areas and the [ministry] and TCF project are together providing strategic support to a small number of pilot projects designed to demonstrate how the technology could work in Indonesia,'€ it said.

'€œAt present, there is one example of a WTE power plant operating between government and private entities in Indonesia at Bantar Gebang Landfill in Bekasi, West Java, with potential capacity of up to 12 MW,'€ it said.

The Indonesian government through the ministry has built one pilot WTE project at Sukawinatan Landfill in Palembang, South Sumatra, with capacity of 500 kilowatts.

According to the TFC, the plant will be operated by the local administration in Palembang through a city-owned enterprise (BUMD). Other WTE projects are in preparation and procurement stages such as in Batam and Nambo, West Java.

To date, 11 prospective WTE projects capable of being advanced with private-sector involvement have been identified in various cities and regions in Indonesia with a potential power capacity of up to 200 MW.

At the Piyungan Tempat Pembuangan Akhir (TPA) landfill facility in Yogyakarta province, for example, options are being considered for turning the site into a Tempat Pembuangan Sampah Terpadu (TPST) integrated waste management facility, improving the local environment and providing feedstock for power generation in the form of solid, refuse-derived fuel and landfill gas.

Existing WTE projects utilizing landfill gas to provide power are already operating at a number of large regional landfills including Bantar Gebang in Jakarta, Suwung in Bali and Benowo in Surabaya.

'€œWhile some progress in the development of waste-to-energy solutions for Indonesia is being made at local and district levels, more impetus may be required from national government, if its potential is to be realized,'€ the TFC said.

'€œSo far, so good, then. Questions remain, however, whether the push from potential investors and equipment suppliers will continue to be matched by the pull from the local and district [administrations] in Indonesia responsible for landfills,'€ it said.

'€œAnd whether the benefits of waste-to-energy, in terms of better waste management and its contribution to national energy requirements, are sufficient to persuade local and district [administrations] to make the improvements to landfill management necessary for the operation of waste-to-energy systems,'€ it said.

The government will have to continue to monitor the situation and be prepared, if necessary, to provide encouragement in order to maintain progress in the waste-to-energy sector, the TFC advised.