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vgbe supports the flexibilization of Indonesian coal-fired power plants

IIn April of this year, the vgbe was commissioned by GIZ Indonesia to support the flexibilization of coal-fired power plants in the country.
The activities focus primarily on demonstration projects designed to test flexible operation at reference power plants. These plants belong to the Jawa-Madura-Bali (JAMALI) system which is the largest electricity network in the Indonesian archipelago, accounting for approximately 70 percent of the country’s total generation capacity.
PLN, GIZ and vgbe team at the Lontar power plant (6 July)
Meeting of PLN, GIZ and vgbe teams at the Indramayu power plant (8 July)

To select suitable reference plants, a fact-finding mission took place from 4 to 10 July. As part of this mission, Dr. Christian Ullrich and Prof. Dr. Claudia Weise from vgbe along with Aravindakshan Ramanan and Imam Askolani from GIZ Indonesia visited two power plant sites operated by the state-owned energy company PLN. The first plant is the Lontar facility, which consists of three subcritical and one supercritical unit, each with a capacity of 300 MW, and operated by PLN Indonesia Power. The second power plant site is Indramayu, where three subcritical units with a capacity of 310 MW each are in operation. The flexibility test runs are scheduled to take place in November of this year. The results are expected to help enable the power plant sites to operate flexibly, particularly with regard to low minimum loads.

DThis flexibility will be necessary to achieve the Indonesia’s PV expansion targets. Recently, the Indonesian government has announced targets of 100 GW Solar PV by 2030. However, the current share of renewables – which are based mainly on hydropower and geothermal energy – is about 13 percent. Coal accounts for 67 percent—with an installed capacity of approximately 29 GW, PLN is the largest operator of coal-fired power plants.