ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The Indonesian government requires an investment of US$ 14 billion to meet electricity needs in Sulawesi until 2030. This investment includes US$ 10.7 billion for generating plants, US$ 2.3 billion for transmission, and US$ 1 billion for substations. .
The largest electricity need in Sulawesi is for nickel smelter electricity needs until 2030 which reaches 11,139 MW.
“The need for nickel smelters currently reaches 20 gigawatts (GW) and is met through Steam Power Plants. We will strive to provide clean energy for this and also as part of the energy transition,” said the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin Tasrif, as quoted Tuesday, August 6 2024.
According to Arifin, smelting is an industry that requires a lot of energy. Even in Sulawesi itself, a smelter area of only 4,500 hectares requires almost 7 GW of electrical energy.
“We will reduce the percentage of electricity supply for this smelter. We will switch from using coal to using gas,” explained Arifin.
The gas allocation will be obtained in the not too distant future, with the end of the Donggi Senoro natural gas contract in 2027 amounting to 337 MMSCF which can be used for the new Wellhead Steam Gas Power Plant with a capacity of 1,800 MW. There is also some natural gas potential via piped gas from the ENI Muara Bakau Field in the Makassar Strait (between Kalimantan-Sulawesi) amounting to 500 MMSCFD which can also be used to build a new Steam Gas Power Plant in Palu with a capacity of 2,650 MW.
Electricity from the two Steam Gas Power Plants is then distributed via 500 kV transmission to supply the Huadi cluster smelter in South Sulawesi, Pomala-Ceria (Poci) and Konawe-Morowali (Kemo) in Southeast Sulawesi.
“So, we are planning gas from here (Kalimantan), hopefully, the Makassar Strait, we will pull the pipe, to Palu. Here we will build a gas plant (Sulawesi), then pull the transmission. There is also LNG here. The end of the contract Donggi Senoro natural gas in 2027 will continue to export the LNG overseas. We will ask for it to be used domestically. From here, we will build the gas generator again so that this can support the carbon reduction program in the smelter industries,” concluded Arifin.
Electricity from the two Steam Gas Power Plants is then distributed via 500 kV transmission to supply the Huadi cluster smelter in South Sulawesi, Pomala-Ceria (Poci) and Konawe Morowali (Kemo) in Southeast Sulawesi.
“If the gas price for the two Steam Gas Power Plants follows the HGBT of around 6 US$/MMBTU and the transmission toll fee is 3.88 cUSD/kWh with an electricity price of around 11 cUSD/kWh then that is quite competitive,” said Arifin. (ATN)
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