As a follow up to the central government'€™s plan to develop waste-based power plants in seven large cities, the Jakarta city administration will soon realize its long-held ambition of having a waste-to-energy project in Sunter, North Jakarta.

The government announced its plan to develop the plants in Jakarta, Bandung, Tangerang, Semarang, Surabaya, Surakarta and Makassar last week at a limited Cabinet meeting chaired by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo.

Since 2011, the city administration has planned to build intermediate treatment facilities (ITF) in several areas in Jakarta, namely in Sunter, Marunda, Cakung and Duri Kosambi that would convert waste into energy, City Sanitation Agency deputy head Ali Maulana Hakim told thejakaratpost.com on Friday.

Tenders for the projects were received in 2012 and some foreign companies have been selected to handle the project in cooperation with local companies. However, until now, no winner has been announced because of the changing of leadership in the city.

The tender was kicked off by Fauzi Bowo'€™s administration. Then governor Jokowi asked for input from the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) and National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) regarding the tender process. When the opinion was delivered to the city administration, Jokowi was elected as President.

Governor Ahok preferred to wait for central government regulation on the matter to follow up the development of the waste-based power plan, Sanitation Agency integrated waste management head Asep Kuswanto said on Saturday.

Ali Maulana expressed hope that the central government would issue the government regulation on the waste-to-energy program soon so that the city administration could immediately decide on which company would handle the project.

'€œThe issuance of the government regulation will accelerate the realization of the waste-based power plant in Jakarta," Ali told thejakartapost.com, adding that the technology that would be used for the ITF, an incineration plant or something else, had not been decided.

Ali said the construction of the ITF would take around eighteen months. Therefore if the regulation is issued this year, Jakarta will be able to operate its first ITF in Sunter next year. "One ITF can process from 1000 to 1300 tons of waste. If Jakarta can build four ITF, Jakarta can process more than 4000 tons of waste," Ali said.

Currently, Jakarta relies on the Bantar Gebang waste treatment facility in Bekasi, West Jakarta to manage about 6,000 tons of garbage per day.

The construction cost of the project is projected to be between Rp 1.5 (US$ 111.32 million) and Rp 1.7 trillion. (bbn)

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