Indonesian state-owned electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has started to operate a power plant fueled by crude palm oil (CPO), the first one in the Asia Pacific region, a newspaper said here Thursday.
The move follows a government regulation mandating the use of biofuel in all sectors.
The firm director Murtaqi Syamsuddin quoted by the Jakarta Postas saying that the power plant had a capacity of 10 megawatts and was located in Dumai, Riau Province.
"This is a pilot project. The power plant has been operated, but is still at the commissioning stage," Murtaqi said.
The directors said that the power plant was initially fueled with diesel but was later converted to a crude palm oil (CPO)-fueled power plant by installing converter equipment at the plant.
The converter equipment is provided by Neue Maschinenbau Halberstadt GmbH (NMBH), a global biofuel engines producer based in Germany.
Franz J. Komischke, NMBH director for marketing and sales, said the investment to convert the 10 MW diesel-fueled power plant into10 MW CPO-fueled power plant cost anywhere between 22 billion rupiah (1.9 million U.S. dollars ) and 29 billion rupiah (some 2.5million U.S. dollars).
According to Komischke, replacing diesel with CPO to fuel power plant could eventually reduce production costs by between 40 and 60 percent.
About 1,500 tons of CPO is needed per year for a 10 MW power plant, he added.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article