Ormat Technologies and its partners have commissioned NIL 2, the third unit of the $1.17bn Sarulla geothermal power plant in North Sumatra, Indonesia.
Image: The Sarulla geothermal plant is located in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo: courtesy of Toshiba Corporation.
The geothermal power plant located in Tapanuli Utara has now reached its full capacity of 330MW with all the three units, each of around 110MW in operations.
While SIL, the first unit of the Sarulla power plant began operations in last March, NIL 1 – the second unit was placed into service in October 2017. The three units are operated on steam as well as brine extracted from the geothermal field to boost the efficiency of the power plant.
The power plant features Toshiba’s flash and Ormat’s binary technologies to deliver a high efficiency and 100% reinjection of the exploited geothermal fluid.
Considered to be one of the largest geothermal power projects in the world till date, Sarulla is equipped with geothermal steam turbines and generators, along with Ormat’s geothermal combined-cycle units (GCCUs).
Ormat also supplied its Ormat energy converters (OECs) for the geothermal power plant which are claimed to be generating more than 40% of the total power. The company said that the OECs use low pressure steam and the separated brine.
The Sarulla geothermal power plant is supported by a 30-year energy sales contract with state-owned Indonesian power company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).
Ormat Technologies CEO Isaac Angel said: “Ormat believes Asia is a region with significant untapped geothermal potential, and we expect to use the success at the Sarulla plant as a stepping stone to additional opportunities.
“Our relationship with ORIX Corporation, coupled with our participation in one of the world’s largest geothermal power plants, serve as important differentiators in Asia and globally for Ormat.”
The Sarulla power plant is owned by a consortium made up of Itochu (25%), Kyushu Electric Power (25%), Medco Power Indonesia (18.9975%), Inpex (18.2525%) and Ormat International (12.75%).
Financed by Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and others, the Indonesian geothermal power plant is operated by Sarulla Operations (SOL), which has been established by the partners.