Steve Bolze (JP/Grace D. Amianti)

The government’s target to install 35,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity across Indonesia by 2019 is seen as an ambitious project that needs extra attention in order to help increase the national electrification ratio to 97 percent, up from the current ratio of 88.3 percent. GE Power, as the largest industrial segment of US technology giant General Electric (GE), aims to play a valuable role in Indonesia’s electricity program through innovation that promises a reliable level of efficiency for power plants. GE Power CEO and president Steve Bolze recently talked with The Jakarta Post’s Grace D. Amianti about the company’s initiatives to help the government’s program. The following are edited excerpts from the interview.

Question: What do you think about the government’s ambitious electricity procurement target of 35,000 MW by 2019 and how is GE Power positioned in that program?

 Answer: The Indonesian government’s target of 35 gigawatts (35,000 MW) by 2019 is one of the most ambitious power commitments of any country in the world. To put it in context, the world needs 50 percent more power in the next 20 years. About 70 percent of that power goes to developing regions. One of the fastest growing areas in the world is Asia, with a third of the power going to Southeast Asia.

Indonesia, with 250 million people and 56 gigawatts of power currently installed, can have a lot more power in the future. So, when we think about it, it’s all about things that we can help solve, from gas power, to renewable power, to smart grids, to digitization of the existing assets for more capability. That is why we’re here.

With our customers, subsidiaries of state-owned electricity firm PLN, we’re in the process of bringing on 600 MW of new power by the end of the year. It’s on across eight sites, as part of the Future of Electricity Conference. Our local teams showed some videos with some of the citizens getting power, which they didn’t have before. So, it’s exciting.

And then we’d also say that we have a number of proposals on the table for our customers for new power projects that will be even bigger. So, we’re here to talk with the minister, the customers and then think about where there are some other areas that we can also support with.

As one of the world’s biggest players in electricity, what kind of proposals or propositions do you offer?

I would say the big one in our new proposals is around additional fast-power. Those proposals are part of what’s going in this year, about 600 MW. So, there will be more of that, because it can be mobile-power and it could be sent to more remote areas that don’t have power grids.

Second is the largest single power block of gas we’re bidding on right now that has the highest efficiency in the world. And third, there is quite a bit of new coal that the country is looking at. With GE’s acquisition of (the energy business of French conglomerate) Alstom, we’re able to bring in that technology here to Indonesia.

So additional fast power, additional large blocks of gas and high efficiency coal as well as renewable energy. Those are really the big ones that we’re talking the most about.

We’re waiting to hear about some of those projects and at the same time, we talk to a couple of customers about their existing power generating assets and how we can increase their performance and their reliability. So, for the same fuel, you’ll get more power.

What do you view as the main challenges in implementing those projects?

I would say one of them is the speed, in which our customers and the government want to work is challenging. It’s a good problem to have, but I’d say it is speed, second of which is ongoing local expansion of our suppliers here as well as our training of our customers. And the third of which is, I would just say, how we continue to show the value of the new digital solutions we have. We’re going to be working with a couple of our customers here on exactly how to do that. So, those are really the challenges.

 Do you think the government has already shown and given enough support to implement your work here in line with its 35,000 MW project?

We had a number of people from the government as part of the Future of Electricity seminar today, so they’re actively involved. What the government is trying to do with the 35 gigawatts in five years, it’s tough. It’s hard to do. We’ve seen it happen in the world, but I think the more dialogue we can have around that, there will be more capability and real projects that can move forward. That’s the best way we can support and that’s why we co-sponsored the summit today with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).

Indonesia is short in big power sources, namely coal and gas. We’ve already had trouble in gas, and the latest research shows that our coal will be depleted within the next 30 years. So what do you think is a solution for our power source in the future?

Part of the solution, which the government has laid out, is renewable power. That is clear, that’s part of the solution. But the other is more efficiency out of the existing assets. So, for the same amount of coal, same amount of gas, how do you get more power out of the existing assets? It can be done and the average efficiency here for the coal plants might be close to 40 percent, which is by the way similar to the rest of the world. But new coal plants can be 48 to 49 percent. That’s a big deal in terms of more power. It’s also a big deal in terms of carbon emissions.

Right now for our new steam plant we can reach 48 percent efficiency and new gas plants up to
62 percent. Technically, those numbers give you a sense of one point of efficiency on our global coal fleet. It’s probably worth 3 billion dollars annually in savings as well as probably two points in reduction of CO2 (carbondioxide), that’s probably 50,000 new wind turbines. It’s a big deal.

What kind of renewable energy do you think Indonesia has the most potential to develop?

I would say you will hear a lot about wind, there’ll be some solar and as you look at it you’ll hear hydro too. And in hydro, with Alstom coming into GE, we have one of the best hydro fleets in the world now. So, those are really the areas.

Popular

Great Barrier Reef hit by record bleaching

Govt to undo latest curbs on personal imports

Middle East on edge as Israel and Iran trade threats