Bringing sustainable and affordable energy to Indonesia’s eastern islands

Among the thousands of islands in the Indonesian archipelago, residents of the eastern islands face relatively lower-quality and higher-cost electricity, compounded by low electrification. Increasing access to an affordable and sustainable energy supply in the region is a priority of the Government of Indonesia. 

Tractebel has performed electrification studies for the World Bank Group (WBG) across ten eastern Indonesian islands over the past two years. The WBG extended the project further in 2021, when it entrusted Tractebel extend its studies to another ten islands. 

The project began in 2019, when Tractebel won the WBG tender to support PLN, the Indonesian state electrical company, in reducing electricity generation costs in the region in a sustainable manner. We performed pre-feasibility studies to determine a greener energy supply for ten islands across four Indonesian provinces: Nusa Tenggara Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Maluku and Maluku Utara.  Tractebel experts from Indonesia, Belgium and Germany collaborated on this project with Dr. Muhamad Reza, from Tractebel in Indonesia, as Project Manager.  

For each island, pre-feasibility studies included site visits, load flow study and dispatch diagnosis, and demand and generation forecast analysis. Planning exercises concluded with a series of workshops where the technical assessments of 15 selected Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) potential projects were presented. 

Following the results of the VRE workshops, Tractebel was awarded an additional mandate in 2020 to continue the technical and financial assessment on another seven VRE-related potential projects. The WBG extended the project to ten more islands earlier this year.

“Tractebel’s electrification projects with PLN and the World Bank Group reinforce our reputation as one-stop global experts in sustainable energy solutions. Reducing electricity costs while minimizing environmental impact is a win-win situation: residents benefit from an improved quality of life, while the planet benefits from significantly reduced carbon emissions.” 
 
Dr. Muhamad Reza, Tractebel Project Manager and Senior Power System Engineer in Indonesia 

VRE workshop participants in Kupang, Nusa Tenggara Timur 

VRE workshop participants in Ambon, Maluku