31 December 2008

Faster or Slower - Reflection 2008

I am on the opinion that fastness is not compatible with agility. A fast moving car cannot make turn safely without breaking and reducing speed. Agility is compatible with adequate speed (if not to say slow). I believe this principle is applicable to our live. We can be watchful if we are at the right speed. If we are moving too fast then details will be lost and we are prone to disturbance on the way.

Let's reflect year 2008. Global economic crisis was triggered by over expectation. Economy was pushed too much to perform and to gain profits. In this interconnected world (a.k.a. globalization) too much pressure at one end of the pipe can create leaks in the pipe where the pipe is weak and those leaks brought the whole economy down. Too much pressure to spin economic wheel faster has failed. I personally think that year 2009 is the year of slowing down so that we can duck, avoid, and be agile if there are disturbances on the way.

Happy new year and may you find your correct speed so that you can continue living peacefully and safely.

23 December 2008

New Solar Generator on DGEEU's Roof


Directorate General for Electricity and Energy Utilization (DGEEU) has just installed massive amount of solar panels on its main building roof. I personally do not know the intention of the installation. If it is just to reduce electricity bill then the investment will be able to cover the monthly bill up to approximately 270 months (let's say monthly electricity bill is IDR 5.000.000). I assume each watt peak costs US$ 5 and with exchange rate of IDR 10.000 per US$ then each watt peak will cost 50.000. When I try to look at the picture below (sorry it is not very clear, taken using Nokia 2360), each panel is 100 Wp and there are 27 panels in each row. There are 5 rows and that means the capacity is approximately 13.5 kW. That's just the under deck, the upper dect I assume they also install the same amount of capacity. Therefore in total there might be 27 kW installed. I only calculated for the solar panels. If I include the battery, I assume they use industrial 2 volts battery, there will be 110 battery (to reach 220 volts DC). Each battery can cost approximately IDR 90.000.000, and if there are 110 batteries then the cost of battery will be approximately IDR.9.900.000.000. The cost of battery can cover electricity cost approximately 1980 months (approximately 160 years with current electricity tariff). Oh...my God, is this the way the world should go or what? Don't they have more important things to do?

But maybe, it is a kind of renewable promotion. Indonesia is sun rich country. Solar power is easily deployed, but should we look for more "rational" source of energy? biomass for example. I believe there is huge amount of biomass potential in the country. The country is still agricultural and there are many options to reuse agriculture residues and generate energy from it. I don't know. I would rather do something more tangible to the people than just installing solar generator on my roof (maybe I will someday, if each watt peak cost less than 1 US$).

BioPremium, a premium class fuel?

Approximately two years ago I first heard about this bio premium. Premium is a brand of Pertamina. It represents gasoline with RON number of 88. Premium is subsidized by the government. Bio premium is first sold in Malang area where the ethanol producer is located. According to the user bio premium performs very well. Engine runs smoother, there is no knocking, acceleration is better etc. In short people are satisfied both with the performance and the price.

Bio premium is one of Pertamina’s contributions to the national target to increase the use of bio fuel in the total energy consumption. Beside bio premium, Pertamina also sells bio pertamax. Bio pertamax is easily found in many Pertamina’s gas station all over Indonesia. Pertamax is higher grade fuel with RON number of 92. Bio premium suppose to have 2% ethanol content in it. I am actually expecting higher percentage of ethanol in it, but the standard says differently. This type of fuel has very good characteristics such as: lower air emission, better combustion, no need to modify engine, longer engine lifetime, somehow partly renewable energy (gggg…), and it has cleaning characteristic.

I had once used my own mixture of normal premium grade fuel and ethanol. I got the ethanol during the auto show in July. The price for 1.5 liter of ethanol is IDR 15.000 and the seller says that maximum, one can mix 10% ethanol 90% premium. My first impression when using “self mixed fuel” was that the car consumed more fuel (I calculated 1 liter for more or less 10 kilometers that for a 1000 cc car is just too much) than usual consumption. I drove the car in a mixture traffic condition that mostly congested. Sometimes the car ran not very smooth maybe this was because of the cleaning characteristic of the ethanol. Acceleration was also a bit slow. I suspected that the cause of this slow acceleration was because of the wrong ignition timing. Using approximately 10% ethanol means the fuel mixture might have RON number above 88 and that means one need to retard a bit the ignition timing. Since that experience, I did not buy more ethanol (I still have small amount of ethanol at home).

However, in the last two weeks I always fill my tank full with bio premium. I accidentally saw this gas station in Kuningan street sells bio premium. Let’s try, I said to my self and then I filled the tank full at IDR 5.500 per liter. Use it to Bandung and surprisingly the fuel consumption is much better than usual. I drove for more than 300 kilometers and the fuel indicator just point the middle section of it. It means, if I fill the tank full again, it will just need more or less 19 liters to 20 liters of fuel. That means 1 liter for approximately 15 kilometers (cipularang toll road plus traffic congestion in alun-alun area in Bandung). The engine runs smoothly and acceleration is good. I did not make any changes in the ignition timing. The engine is as it is. This condition really gives me very good impression and since then I always fill my tank with bio premium unless there is no gas station selling it. So far in Jakarta there are only 4 gas station currently selling bio premium and the plan is to add 9 more gas stations.

I say, bio premium rocks. It is a good quality fuel. It helps the engine run smoothly and improve fuel economy and somehow helps to reduce gas pollutant. I hope pertamina can increase the percentage of ethanol in the mixture so that less fossil fuel is used. I have heard that there are cars that run with 100% ethanol. Maybe one day the government will make an obligation to all car manufacturers in Indonesia to improve the engine system so that it can take at least 10% ethanol in the fuel.

But…please improve the traffic system. In case there is mass rapid transport available from my home area, I might change my mode of transport. My car is so far much cheaper to operate than using public transport.

15 December 2008

Better Regulation - Which Level Should It be?

Last week I joined a discussion about micro hydro quality standard. We were discussing mainly the content of the draft. Manufacturers and developers were attending the meeting. Regulators, standardization expert and also micro hydro financiers (i.e. the government) also attended the meeting.

The meeting was good. People were active in giving inputs and the draft it self is actually in the right direction. During one of the breaks, we were talking about the legal setting for the standard. In Indonesia we have SNI (Standard Nasional Indonesia - Indonesian National Standard) that mainly regulates industry and in electricity sector we also have PLN standard (the standard that is issued by national utility). In our mind standard of PLN is obligatory for any PLN projects but not obligatory to electricity projects initiated by other institution. This might be true and anyway we have to find out.

The draft micro hydro standard is not yet ready to be SNI. SNI standardization process usually takes approximately 2 years and the draft has just been drafted in the last 3 months. It is already half baked or cooked actually therefore it is ready to be implemented. The problem is which legal setting should be used? Should it use Ministerial Decree or should it use higher legal setting (e.g. joint ministerial decree).

Ministerial Decree will only valid for internal only and this will just make the overall impact of the draft standard lower. So far, it is not only Ministry of Energy that implement micro hydro projects. There are also Ministry of Cooperative and Ministry of Underprivileged Areas (MUA) that also implement micro hydro projects. As far as my observation, projects implemented by MUA are not of high quality. If the standard can also cover those two other ministries, I expect better project from MUA also.

If the standard is becoming SNI then it will be obligatory for all. However because it is not yet ready a joint ministerial decree. I believe there is still a long way to go for the standard to become an SNI. Joint Ministerial Decree will be a proper setting for now. Hope DGEEU can bring this issue to higher level, if sustainability of micro hydro is the overall goal. Let's hope.