GE's Power Plant on Wheels Delivers Electricity to Indonesia's Remote Areas

GE's Power Plant on Wheels Delivers Electricity to Indonesia's Remote Areas

General Electric is traveling all over the country with a mission:
installing its mobile power plant, the TM2500, wherever they could in
Indonesia's remote areas.

The American multinational conglomerate claimed to have been supporting
Indonesia's infrastructure development since 1940, with more than $1 billion
already invested in the country.

According to its GE Reports Asean, GE technology is responsible for
approximately more than 20 percent of Indonesia's electricity generation,
with more than 8 gigawatts of electricity being generated from GE's gas
turbines.

To support President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's ambitious plan to put extra
35,000 megawatts into Indonesia's power grid and up the country's
electrification rate to 97% by 2019, GE recently sent in its latest
innovation, the TM2500, to Gorontalo and Lombok to bolster their power
supply.

Power plant on wheels for Gorontalo

Many Gorontalo residents make their living as fishermen. But a lack of
electricity has meant they often run out of ice to keep their catch fresh,
resulting in many expensive fish like tuna going to waste.

Villagers also complain of not being able to do even the most menial jobs
such as doing the laundry because of frequent power failures.

"Usually we don't have any power from 8 a.m. until two to three hours later.
At night, the electricity also cuts out at 8 p.m. Nearly every night we have
power for only one to two hours," Sarni, a villager in Gorontalo, said.

In late October 2015, GE and Indonesia's state utility company PLN
collaborated to provide four gas-fired power plants for more than 800,000
homes in Gorontalo. GE provided the TM2500 mobile gas turbine generator set,
which the company claimed to be "a ground-based version of GE's popular CF6
jet engine - the same engine used to power US President Barack Obama's Air
Force One."

The target was to provide 100 MW of gas-fueled power in six months. The
TM2500 mobile power plant was a perfect match for the purpose, being
flexible and relatively cheap, requiring little construction work.

"The first thing we did was to immediately ship the gas turbines from our
factory," Fajar Akbar, a senior sales leader at GE Indonesia, said.

The TM2500 is made up of mobile generators mounted on a two-trailer
assembly, capable of generating more than 25 MW of electricity.

Referred by GE as its "power plant on wheels," the TM 2500 has given immense
benefits to the people of Gorontalo. It has stabilized the power grid and
provided backup power during natural disasters and plant shutdowns.

Turning Lombok into tourist hotspot

The lack of a reliable power supply has stopped tourism in Lombok from
gaining ground on neighboring Bali. A 71.79% electrification rate is simply
not enough to turn Lombok into a genuine tourist hotspot.

GE again cooperated with PLN to install its TM2500 in eight locations in
Lombok which were not connected to the power grid.

"It took 450 workers and 7 GE engineers about five months to complete the 50
MW mobile power plant in Lombok," Malik Sulaiman, GE senior installation
manager, said.

Just as it has done in Gorontalo, GE's power plant on wheels has also done
wonders to reduce power failures in the island and finally given a chance
for its tourism industry to catch up with Bali.

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Ref:
http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/press-release/ges-power-plant-wheels-deli
vers-electricity-indonesias-remote-areas/

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com