Pertamina supporting scheme with opportunities for geothermal B2B tariffs

PT Pertamina (Persero) is supporting the new government regulation as stipulated in Ministerial Regulation No. 50 of 2017 on the Development of New and Renewable Energy (EBT) which opens opportunities for the process of determining tariffs by way of business-to-business (B2B) between state electricity company PLN and independent power developers (IPP).

Pertamina President Director Elia Massa Manik welcomed the regulation. According to him in the next few years, Pertamina will still develop geothermal energy and this regulation will accelerate the development of renewable energy, such as geothermal, biomass, hydro, solar, and others.

“Investment-friendly regulation and support for future clean energy creation is positive. We have built a geothermal power plant with an installed capacity of 587 MW [megawatts]. The potential is huge, out of a total of 29 Gigawatts, newly installed one is still less than 3 Gigawatts. Therefore, regulation has an important role in the development of geothermal energy in the future,” said Massa to Netral News.

Likewise, the Director of Geothermal of Directorate General of New Energy, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Yunus Saefulhak said the new regulation enables the B2B scheme if the average production cost of electricity generation is deemed inadequate.

He pointed out the Rantau Dedap Geothermal Power Plant project located in Muara Enim and Lahat regency, Pagar Alam City, South Sumatera, in the end its electricity price is determined through a power purchase agreement (PPA) amendment process.

“From the target of renewable energy mix of 23 percent in 2025, about 7,200 MW or 16 percent will come from geothermal, and investment in this sector is estimated to reach $8 billion. So we have to prepare some strategy, first and foremost the regulation must provide support,” explained Yunus.

Source: Netral News