[Kabar-indonesia] Bandung mayor wants trash-fueled power plant

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post 
Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Bandung mayor wants trash-fueled power plant

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada is drafting a letter to President Susilo Bambang 
Yudhoyono to request permission to build a garbage-fueled power plant in the 
city.

Building the 30-megawatt plant would cost Rp 630 billion (US$66.31 million), 
he said.

Dada said over the weekend he had been inspired by the transformation that 
came over the city after 600,000 cubic meters of waste from 255 garbage transfer 
sites was transported to other regions.

Garbage had been heaping up in the city since Leuwigajah dump in Cimahi was 
closed after more than 100 residents were killed in garbage slides in February 
2005.

The idea of building a power plant powered by methane, a gas that is produced 
when waste decays, Dada said, had been presented to National Development 
Planning Board officials on June 27 in Jakarta. On Wednesday, it will be brought 
before the same board.

Similar letters have already been sent to Vice President Jusuf Kalla and the 
relevant state ministers.

"We will construct the best waste management system in the country," Dada 
said.

Bandung Sanitation Agency head Awan Gumelar said Monday that building a 
trash-fueled power plant constituted the best solution amid the garbage crisis.

After both national and international media reported on Bandung's inability 
to manage its own waste, Dada famously admitted to feeling ashamed about the 
problem.

"In Malaysia and Singapore, Bandung's garbage problem became news. Even in 
Japan, CNN reported it," Dada said.

He said in the letter that the plant, with an installed capacity of 
30-megawatts, would consume 1,500 tons of garbage daily.

The city produces an average of 7,500 cubic meters or 5,000 tons of trash 
daily. If the garbage company cooperated with a private firm, the total energy 
output for the trash-fueled plant could be as much as 90 MW of electricity per 
day.

However, some members of the Bandung City Council are harboring doubts about 
the project.

Endrizal Nazar, one of the legislators, said the project would require 
borrowing money, which would only burden the people.

"Moreover a study shows that garbage in Bandung has a water content of 59 
percent, while garbage suitable for generating power should have a water content 
of under 50 percent," Endrizal said.

The garbage would be burned to produce electricity.

Based on a study by the Bandung Institute of Technology, Endrizal said, 1,000 
tons of garbage could produce only 5 to 7.5 MW of power

He said that if the plant was constructed before enough research was done, 
the production costs would outweigh any profit made

The plant could not be financed through the sanitation agency's income from 
managing garbage either, because the company suffered Rp 1 billion in losses in 
2005 due to rising operational costs.

"We hope there will be at least one private investor," Awan said.

Despite the controversy, state electricity firm PLN is ready to buy 
electricity produced by the garbage-fueled plant.

"If it's true it produces electricity, we're interested in buying 30 MW a 
day," Murtaqi Syamsudin, the general manager of PLN's West Java-Banten 
distribution section, said.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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