PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PT PLN), a state-owned energy utility, is seeking strategic partnership to develop geothermal capacity in Indonesia. The company is looking for a project sponsor to develop PLN Geothermal Power Plants. Interested companies should either be Indonesia-based or be based in a country that has diplomatic relation with Indonesia. The deadline for registering and submitting DPT Partner Geothermal Power Plant qualifying documents for Phase 1 procurement is April 4, 2022.
In December 2020, PLN issued two pre-qualification tenders inviting bidders to apply for inclusion in the list of selected developers for solar PV and bioenergy (biomass and biogas) projects. Once developers pass the prequalification process, they will be eligible to be invited to participate in future PLN bids.
Prior to this, PLN had held a prequalification process for renewable developers in 2019, for renewable energy projects across eight sources – solar PV, hybrid energy, wind, biomass, biogas, biofuel, tidal, and new energy projects. Unlike the present tender, developers could apply for just one prequalification process and could be included in the DPT for all eight types of projects. The utility carried out another prequalification process in mid-2020 specifically for hydro projects.
Indonesia has set a target of achieving 23 per cent share of renewables in the total primary energy supply by 2025 and of 31 per cent by 2030. In early 2020, Indonesia announced plans to issue a presidential regulation on a feed-in tariff system in a bid to boost investment in its renewable energy sector. The feed-in tariffs will offer renewable power plant developers a fixed electricity price for 12 years. In January 2020, PLN signed a power purchase agreement with Masdar to develop the country’s first floating PV plant with a capacity of 145 MW.
REGlobal’s Views: Located in close proximity to the “Ring of Fire” zone of active volcanos, Indonesia has a significant potential for development of geothermal capacity. Thus, PLN’s decision to expand geothermal capacity is a step in the right direction.
