PT Supreme Energy Muara Laboh held a ceremony on Wednesday to officially start drilling of its seventh exploitation well at the Muara Laboh geothermal working area in Solok Selatan Regency, West Sumatra Province.
Supreme said in a statement that it plans to drill a total of 19 wells in Muara Laboh. ?The wells will later supply steam to the PLTP Muara Laboh geothermal power plant unit 1 with capacity of 80 MW which will start operation in 2019,? the company said, adding that once starting operation, the power plant will supply electricity to 160,000 households via the West Sumatra electricity sub-system.
Supreme Energy Muara Laboh is developing the power plant project with total investment of US$469 million, which means that 1 MW requires investment of around $5.86 million.
Meanwhile, Director of Geothermal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Yunus Saefulhak said in his remarks that geothermal power plants in the country currently has combined installed capacity of 1,698.5 MW. The government has set a target for geothermal power plant capacity to reach 7,200 MW by 2025.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak
