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nited States-based technology giant General Electric (GE) is set to synergize the operation of power plants run by PT Pembangkitan Jawa Bali (PJB) under a digital management system, a move expected to help the latter save up to US$700 million a year.

PJB, a subsidiary of state electricity firm PLN, currently operates 21 power plants across the country with a total output capacity of 10.7 gigawatts (GW) of electricity. It expects to double its capacity by 2022.

The company signed on Wednesday an agreement with GE that will pave the way for the latter to develop a remote engineering, monitoring, diagnostics and optimization center (Remdoc) in Surabaya, East Java.

The Remdoc, expected to be completed and go live in October, will be connected with GE applications installed across PJB’s 21 facilities.

One such application is called Asset Performance Management, which can monitor and analyze data drawn from thousands of sensors installed in the 21 plants, allowing PJB to predict outages and boost efficiency.

“For instance, our software can predict if a spark plug at a power plant needs to be replaced earlier than it should be,” David Hutagalung, country director for Indonesia at GE Power, one of GE’s subsidiary, said on Wednesday.

“Then, we can prevent an unscheduled downtime by remotely monitoring the performance of each power plant.”

Furthermore, the Remdoc can also provide analytics to manage power grids’ stability and fuel variability. PJB will then be able to generate electricity in accordance with the demand of a certain region and use fuel more efficiently.

PJB expects that it can start the digitalization program at its coal-fired Paiton power plant in East Java and coal-fired Indramayu power plant in West Java before the end of this year. Digitalization at the remaining 19 power plants will start next year.

“The cooperation with GE will help improve our efficiency, while at the same time, we are ensuring the reliability of our power plants,” said PJB head of technology Henry Pariaman.

After the program is completed, GE estimates that PJB would be able to save $700 million annually.

GE further predicts that if all power plants in the country could optimize their operations, especially those using Chinese technology, the sector would save more than $5 billion.

Such a case can be seen in the previous administration’s fast-track program (FTP) I to procure 10 GW of electricity across the country, in which coal-fired power plants using subpar technology caused sporadic power outages in remote regions outside Java.

Each power plant in the FTP 1 project uses Chinese technology and struggles with performance issues.

Moreover, if all power plants in the country were digitized, it could potentially save $10 billion and reduce 80 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually, GE said.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has set a target to reduce carbon emissions by 33.6 million tons throughout this year.

On the other hand, a consortium involving GE also signed on Wednesday the agreement with another PLN subsidiary, PT Indonesia Power, to provide gas turbines for Block 3 of the Tambak Lorok combined-cycle power plant in Semarang, Central Java.

The consortium, which also consists of state construction firm PT Hutama Karya and Japan’s diversified group Marubeni Corporation, has been recently awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth Rp 4.8 trillion ($360.46 million) to develop the Tambak Lorok facility, which is expected to operate in the first quarter of 2020 with a capacity of 780 megawatts (MW).

“From GE’s side, we will support technology procurement and financing issues; we will help the consortium get the best possible financing support,” David said.

PLN’s latest electricity procurement business plan (RUPTL) states that Indonesia intends to develop 77.9 GW power plants in the 2017-2026 period. Around 40.9 percent of the figure will come from coal-fired facilities, 24.1 percent from combined-cycle power plants and 7.2 percent from gas-fueled plants.