Two Indonesia geothermal sites to be auctioned before year-end

Coastal view, Lampung, Sumatra (source: flickr/ trugiaz, creative commons)

Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) is planning to auction two geothermal working areas (WKP) before the end of the year. These two sites are the Way Ratai WKP in Pesawaran Regency, Lampung and the Nage WKP in Ngada Regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

The announcement was made by Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE) Dadan Kusdiana during the opening event of the Jakarta office of INPEX Geothermal Ltd.

The Nage WKP has been in the news recently as one of the sites of the Government Drilling program. Under this program, the Indonesian Government undertakes the costs and risks of drilling before offering the site to a private developer. It is presumed that some data from the drilling phase will be made available to interested bidders.

The Way Ratai WKP was originally awarded in 2015 to a consortium of PT Optima Nusantara Energi and Enel Green Power, with Enel holding a 90% stake. We reported on the start of the exploration phase for this project, which was said to have a potential of 55 MW.  However, Enel withdrew from the project after frustrations with the inconsistency of power tariffs during negotiations with power utility PT PLN.

Source: Ekonomi.bisnis.com