GE Power sees stake in Indonesia's ambitious electricity program

GE Power sees stake in Indonesia's ambitious electricity program

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?

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Ref:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/24/ge-power-sees-stake-indonesia-
s-ambitious-electricity-program.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com