Figure 1. Executive Director of PT Geo Dipa Energi, Riki Firmandha Ibrahim, opened the event by presenting the current report on Dieng 2 and Patuha 2 projects.
The Purnomo Yusgiantoro Center (PYC) on 25 April 2019 attended the Groundbreaking of Dieng 2 and Patuhan 2 Geothermal Power Plant at Dhanapala Hall, Jakarta. The event was organized by PT Geo Dipa Energi as the operator of both Dieng and Patuha Geothermal Field. Mr. Riki Firmanda Ibrahim, as the Executive Director of PT Geo Dipa Energi, opened the event by presenting what they have done in the past couple of years, the current projects, and as well as the next project plans of PT Geo Dipa Energi. PT Geo Dipa Energy has successfully operated two large-scale geothermal power plants, Dieng 1 Geothermal Power Plant in Wonosobo, Central Java and Patuha 1 Geothermal Power Plant in Bandung, West Java. Both have installed capacity of 60MW. The installed capacity has been increased from 60MW in 2002 to 120MW in 2015. The new additional power plants will allow PT Geo Dipa to increase their installed capacity up to 140MW in 2020 and 270MW in 2022. Furthermore, they have also planned to open two more new geothermal power plants at Candi Umbul Telomoyo in Central Java and Arjuno Welirang in East Java.
The next speaker was Andrew Jeffries as the representative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He argued that the risk and uncertainty of geothermal project is generally higher than other renewable energy businesses. Thus, it is essential for the geothermal company to be supervised by a reliable financial consultant to analyze the economics scale of the project based on the capital and operational expenditure plans. As a financial institution, ADB has a commitment to support green energy projects around the world such as Carbon Capture Storage (CCS), renewable energy and energy storage.
There were also two government representatives; FX Sutijastoto as the General Director of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resouces and Sri Mulyani as the Minister of Finance. Both FX Sutijastoto and Sri Mulyani appreciated the achievement of PT Geo Dipa Energy. The Government targets on increasing renewable energy share to 23 percent of the energy mix in 2025, thus it must be followed by a strong commitment from stakeholders. Moreover, the development should also consider the sustainability aspect based on the national economic growth, electricity demand forecast, government target as well as Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goal. Thus, the right policies should be applied so that it will benefit all parties including the people and investors.