P

T Pertamina, the state energy firm, announced on Tuesday its plans to erect a waste-fired power plant at the Bantargebang garbage dump in Bekasi, West Java. The plant will have a capacity of around 120 megawatt (MW), which is expected to deliver electricity to Java and Bali.

Pertamina gas director Hari Karyuliarto said in Jakarta that the company had signed a preliminary agreement with the contractor firm PT Godang Tua Jaya, the operator of the Bantargebang integrated waste treatment plant (TPST), to initiate the project.

The power plant project, which has an estimated investment of around US$180 million, is planned to utilize as much as 2,000 tons of garbage per day to generate electric power through biomass and municipal solid waste technology.

The 110 hectare Bantargebang TPST site has the capacity to accommodate around 5,000 tons of garbage distributed daily from Jakarta.

“We signed a memorandum of understanding [MoU] with PT Godang Tua Jaya earlier this week. We are looking forward to signing a follow-up agreement by December this year that will stipulate further details about the project,” Hari said in a statement made available for The Jakarta Post.

“We are expecting the new power plant to be operational and produce electricity by 2014,” Hari continued.

Pertamina, according to Hari, has yet to confirm the new power plant’s site. He did confirm, however, that the electricity from the trash-fired power plant would be distributed through the Java-Bali interconnection.

Assuming one household needs approximately 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh), the planned 120 MW plant could supply power for 120,000 households.

Earlier this year, state utility firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) announced the electricity supply for Java and Bali was around 22,900 MW, while demand in the region was 35,000 MW, larger by 35 percent.

Under the independent power producer (IPP) scheme in Indonesia, PLN is expected to buy the electricity from the planned Bantargebang power plant.

PLN renewable energy chief Muhammad Sofyan told the Post separately that the company had yet to discuss with Pertamina at what rate the electricity would be bought by PLN.

PLN, according to Sofyan, previously signed a contract with privately owned company PT Navigat Organic Energy Indonesia, also the operator of Bantargebang TPST, in 2010 to buy electricity from the latter’s 12 MW trash-fired power plant in Bantargebang at a rate of Rp 820 (8 US cents) per kilowatt-hour.