Hydropower Investment - Where to?

Hydropower is always related to rainfall. Area that is dry (low rainfall) suppose to be not very attactive for hydropower investment. Let's take a look only on the rainfall information. According to the latest document of Bappenas, the Indonesia Climate Change Sectoral Roadmap (ICCSR), rainfall in all areas in Indonesia will change. The changes are either an increase or a decrease. The simulation reported that Sumatera and Papua will have mostly increases of rainfall. Download ICCSR report here.

In Sumatera, central to south Sumatera might have significant increase of rainfall intensity. Siginificant increase means bigger than 25 mm and lower than 50 mm. Central to North Sumatera might have significant increase and very significant increase (higher than 50 mm). In Papua, all areas will have significant increase of rainfall with some months might have very significant increases of rainfall intensity.

No One Helps the President

Everyone who seeks for justice goes to Jakarta and tries to get justice from the president. Those who are already desperate go to Jakarta. The latest case is actually a 15 years old case. A father from Malang, East Java, have walked more than 1000 kms to go to Jakarta and sees for justice. His son was a victim of traffic accident. His son is dead. The one who hit his son was a police officer. The police never went to jail. The father sees that as injustice so he went to Jakarta to get it from the president.

Not just justice that people ask from the president. The president also get blammed by many. For example in the case of exploding LPG cans. People blame the president for being silent and seems not doing anything. Another example is in the case of price hike. Recently prices are skyrocketing and has made inflation almost reached 1% in just one month. People blamed the president for seems not doing anything to cool down the price hike.

The Gasoline Problem

It was few months ago when the government started the campaign to reduce the consumption of subsidized gasoline. Not very long after that, there are many "fuel pump" problems. Fuel pumps get clogged and even burnt. Many found that there is something wrong with the gasoline (at least their preliminary conclusion). Not very long after that two big taxi operators also reported that hundreds not to mention thousands cars of their fleet also have fuel pump problems. This creates suspicion to the government. Many says that government through state owned oil company try to reduce the consumption of subsidized fuel (gasoline) by putting something bad in the liquid.

All the allegations have not been proved. No one still can not prove that either government or state own company or even the car user or the fuel station owner played dirty. The state own company defended it self to being strict to the standard. Everything come out from their refineries or central distribution points are tested according to the regulation and standard. There are no violations what so ever. Taxi operators even sent the fuel sample to an independent lab in Thailand for a test and the lab showed that the gasoline has too much sulfur content. Sulfur content is always a problem for the diesel fuel here in Indonesia. The quality of diesel fuel is not so clean. Sulfur content is a bit high so that advance common rail systems would not drink it. I am a bit afraid that the fuel station wrongly refuel the underground tanks. The one usually for diesel fuel is refilled with gasoline. They mix and increase sulfur content in the gasoline. But, how likely this is in reality? I guess zero.

Only the Bill that Makes People Worry....

world cup has made a slight increase on the power demand. world cup finals in south africa are played at night in Indonesia. time difference of approximately 4-6 hours between south africa and indonesia (jakarta) has created this situation. during the group matches the games are played between 6 p.m. to around 11 p.m. Indonesian time. In the knock out phase, the games are played between 9 p.m. to around 3 a.m. and semi finals are played at even later time. they starts at 1.30 a.m.. I guess the final will also be played at around 1.30 a.m..

for football fans, the knock out round, semi finals and final are the most interesting rounds of the world cup finals. this has made them stay awake longer than before. the longer those tvs on, the more electricity is consumed. however there are also people that prefer watching the matches with friends or colleagues. this means they watch the tv not at home and maybe only one tv on for, let's say 5-10 people. this has made significant power saving compared to one tv for 1-2 people only. In Indonesia, only the national broadcaster that broadcast the matches. sattelite or pay tv customers are not able to see it via the subscription tv. this might further reduce the possibilities of more tv to be on at late night.

Not the Right Time

Currently Indonesia is experiencing a strange climate condition. It is already July now and in July usually we have dry season with very very little rain. Instead of being very hot and dry, there are still rains throughout Indonesia. The meteorological bureau says that the anomaly is caused by La Nina phenomenon which extend the rainy season in Indonesia.

DG Suspected for Corruption

Just got a shocking news today. Anti Corruption Commission has made the DG of DGEEU as the suspect in the corruption case at DGEEU. It is suspected he and one other suspect has marked up the price in the tender of solar home system project back in 2007-2008. 

I have heard many versions of this mark up. One says that old-non broken SHS systems was bought back from the villagers at very cheap price and sold at much higher price. Other say that the contractor won some projects but only one or two are reported. The rest is just money and never been applied in the field. It's just some options that I heard and understood. I guess there are many other strategies to cheat the government budget.

As far as I observe, those that are managing projects at DGEEU are now being very careful and try not to break the law. They already understood the consequences. Before the KPK's latest decision, there are many of DGEEU staffs that were interviewed by KPK. Some were interviewed more than 10 hours. I guess it was from them that KPK can come to above conclusion. I hope with this, DGEEU will be better and I hope the new DG will be even better than DGEEU.

The news can be found in this link (bahasa)

Measuring "Greeness" of a Company

I was on a drive to a meeting when my colleague mentioned that Mercedes has just revealed its new car. The conversation develops to why Mercedes is able to sell a car at higher price. At the same level of technology (i.e. less emission per mile driven) or better Mercedes sell the car at higher price. This means to reach the same income level, Mercedes only needs to sell fewer cars than Toyota or Honda. If the car is driven for the same distance then emission per monetary unit paid to get the car is less for Mercedes. It seems the Mercedes is greener than the other two.

Official - Electricity Tariff Increase July 2010

BASIC ELECTRICITY TARIFF WILL BE INCREASE BY 10% IN JULY 2010.

It is already in the news that Government of Indonesia will increase the basic electricity tariff by 105 in July 2010. By doing this, the government can reduce the subsidy up to IDR 800 billion per month and thus can reduce government spending and avoid budget deficit. I personally say this is a good news. I might have higher electricity bill next August, however this is a real momentum for energy efficiency measures. Government should and must make bigger campaign on energy efficiency and conservation. More news in Detik Finance (in bahasa).

PLN Says - Free Electricity for Poor People

Director of PLN mentioned this idea to provide free electricity for poor consumers. Poor consumers according to his definition are those who have 450 VA connections. According to his calculation, PLN will only lost IDR 1.5 trillion if electricity is free for poor consumers. His argues that if the new tariff is applied PLN will profit IDR 20 trillion from richer consumers. If tariff is applied and no exceptions are made PLN will profit roughly IDR 40 trillion. 

Opinions are divided into two groups. Those that are supporting the idea say that all other state owned companies should also do that as social obligation. Those who against the idea say that such thing will only create complex conditions, opening more holes for corruption, making PLN suffers from lost (despite calculation above) and many other reasons.

Energypedia.info - new renewable energy portal

The global energy program called Energizing Development or EnDev was initiated approximately 3 years ago by the Dutch government. It is also basically a cooperation program between Dutch government and German government. The target of EnDev is giving energy access to approximately 10 million people before 2015 (target year of MDG). EnDev is implemented by GTZ and operating in 19 developing countries in the world and active in four main areas of activities namely: energy for cooking, energy for household, energy for social infrastructure, and energy for productive use.

Special Allocation Fund - Model for Rural RE Implementation

In the recent years government of Indonesia spent lot of money to electrify rural areas. There are many programs such as decentralization fund support, energy independent village, rural electrification, energy facility support from Ministry of Under Developed Areas, and also Kecamatan Development Project (KDP) project under Ministry of Internal Affairs. Beside those major programs there are smaller projects by local governments, non government organizations and other government institutions.

In short, there are many models of implementation and so far there is no evidence of the best implementation model that can be used by many and replicated easily. Implementation model applied by NGOs usually are close to ideal however the success rate is also questionable since there is not enough information. Quite ideal here means there is a combination of top down and bottom up approach. The level of community involvement is usually also quite high and there is specific activity to facilitate the community to be ready with the new installation. Government's implementation model varies between implementing Ministries. The common characteristics of government's approach are top down, little community participation, and lack of monitoring and supervision.

Interesting Banner - Anti Graft Banner

I found this banner this morning when I arrived to the office. My office is actually in a government building and this banner looks like a campaign to me. Showing this banner proves that there is something wrong in their system. There must be something wrong, if not they will not put the banner.

Indonesia is among the most corrupt countries according to transparency international. The corruption index is 2.2 and at the same level as Iraq (which as you know are in war, which makes corruption quite reasonable). I guess this shows how the government looks like. Despite (maybe) quite high economic development, there is still lack of character development. It is true that money or something like that corrupts the character of people.

Basic Hydro Power - Part 4

Understanding the principle of head and flow and the importance to get correct data of them, then it is time to know more about components of a scheme. The basic components of a micro hydro scheme is illustrated below (source: MHP Scout Guide, GTZ Ethiopia).

First Fly to Europe

Garuda eventually flew to Europe on the 1st of June 2010. The flight was the first flight after the ban was lifted last year. Only two airlines from Indonesia are allowed to fly in the European sky and one of them is Garuda (the national carrier). Garuda flew to Amsterdam and I guess this is not with any reasons. After almost 350 years colonizing Indonesia, the Netherlands is the only country in Europe that has closest historical ties with Indonesia. I guess it is easier for Indonesia to fly to the Netherlands rather than to other European countries.

Yahoo! Pipes

My project is currently developing a website. This website is intended to be semi static one since we are not going to update it each and every single day. Our optimistic update frequency will be once every month although if things happen we can also update it in between. However it feels not too good to have a "static" website. Therefore we are thinking of how to make quite frequent updates but not making us busy updating. RSS feed is the key. We might include news from the sector (especially electricity sector) to be included in the website. The next question is then how to filter the RSS feeds that match to our criteria?

There are many options but for now I am trying Yahoo! service which is called Yahoo! Pipes.

Basic Hydro Power - Part 3

Suddenly you have to measure the head of a water stream. What kind of method would you use? Before answering such question, let's go back a little bit and review the map. With a quite detailed map someone can determine which position is best for the intake and power house and other components of the plant The planner has to draw a sketch and put the rough layout of the power plant on the map. The map should be quite detail (1:25000 scale might do). From the map, one can make an approximation of the head. Measuring in the field will verify the approximation.

Fuel Subsidy - Vol II

Just after big discussion about subsidized fuel consumption, the price of non-subsidized fuel is going down. The price of non subsidized fuel is in the range of IDR 6400 to IDR 7400 per liter. The price is attached to international crude oil price, therefore there is always a chance that the non-subsidized fuel price to be higher or lower. If the crude oil price goes down extremely, the price of non subsidized fuel might also be very close to the price of subsidized fuel (i.e. IDR 4500 per liter).

In this case why don't the government also attached the subsidized fuel price with the international crude oil price?

Fuel Subsidy - Quo Vadis?

Recently there is a big discussion on the internet about the plan from the government to reduce the consumption of subsidized fuel (especially gasoline). There are some proposals to reduce the consumptions: ban the motor bikes from buying subsidized gasoline; limit the purchase per motorized vehicle per man per day; smart card to limit the purchase; and ban the cars from consuming the subsidized fuel. There is a big discussion about the proposed strategies especially the one that plans to ban motor bikes from buying subsidized fuel.

the motorists are against that particular strategy and their opinion is backed up by motor cycle industry. Their arguments mainly are: motor bike consumption is far less that car, therefore it is the car that should be banned from using subsidized fuel; motor bike users are mainly of lower income therefore using non subsidized fuel would certainly eat bigger part of their income. Final decision is not yet taken since any decision will certainly effect the national economy.

Basic Hydro Power - part 2

We already know that flow of water and the height of water fall (or height difference of water flowing from point A to point B or to be short "head") are the important things one needs to know correctly before deciding to go for hydro power or not. Measuring those two parameters needs special skill. Special skill means one has to understand how to use the method and its weaknesses. Let's discuss about measuring flow of water. There are many ways or methods of flow measurement: current meter method, float method, tracer method (salt dilution/water conductivity for example), sharp crested weir method, gauging station method etc.

Basic Hydro Power - part 1

Well I guess many has already understand better that I do about hydro power, however there are still people who simplify the complexity of hydro power even the micro one. Questions like: if I have 500 liters per second, how much kW would I get, still comes to experts. This kind a thing needs an education and complex explanation of things would not help at all. So, I will try to give very basic understanding of how modern hydro power (micro size maybe to be specific) works. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Hydro power is basically power generation by utilizing water power (in this case in general the potential energy of falling water). Therefore the original use of hydro power is to give movement. Water drops move a water wheel that eventually makes certain mechanism to rotate or move and provide specific service. In the old days many mills are using hydro power directly to give movement to their mill facilities. Old hydro power systems use the weight of the water to move the wheel.

Ban Plastic Bag - Now or Later?

In some cities around the world there are already movements to ban the use of plastic bags especially those that are not biodegradable. San Francisco claimed that it is the first city to ban non-bio plastic bag and replace the them with bio degradable plastic bags or recyclable paper bags. The ban of plastic bags in general will give positive impact to the environment. plastic material is based on oil which is non renewable resource. the manufacturing of plastic will certainly deplete the oil reserve although might not be as fast as car burning it. Normal plastic will not bio degrade and they just photo degrade. It means plastic will not rot. Normal plastic will turn into small pieces tiny enough to contaminate water and soil. If taken into the body, the plastic particles will contaminate the body and do harm to our health. Burning normal plastic will also not solve the problem. Burning plastic will emit toxic gases that eventually pollute the air and harm people.

Recent Trip to South and West Sulawesi

It was actually happened in late 2009 (December 2009), therefore this note might be a little late. Anyway, I guess after 6 months the conditions might still the same therefore it might be a useful info for people want to travel there.

Back in December 2009 during this PCNA (Participatory Capacity Needs Assessment) with a friend of mine Axel Biegert von Integration, I went to Makassar and Batang Uru in West Sulawesi province. We had to fly from Jakarta to reach Makassar and drive the whole day to Batang Uru. The road from Makassar to Polewali was under construction at that time. The government tried to pave the road using concrete but the contractor/s do it part by part. Therefore it's like "coitus interuptus", when one just experiencing comfort suddenly it has to stop. Stopping here means good road ends. It happens frequently and it has made the travel not so comfortable. Reaching Polewali took longer then 5 years ago.

During the trip we stopped in Pinrang for lunch at one of the famous sea food restaurants. The food was good but still the road was not. Starting at around 7 from Makassar we reached Pinrang at around 1 p.m. and I guess this was considered as slow. We reached Batang Uru when the day was getting dark and raining. The road from Polewali to Batang Uru was worse because of many holes in the road. Since the Kabupaten (one level lower than provincial government) of Polman (Polewali Mandar) was split into two Kabupatens (Polewali and Mandar), the road maintenance was done poorly. Therefore 5 years ago I can reach Makassar in just 5 hours using speedy public transport even.

On the way back we stayed overnight in Pinrang and again took the liberty to enjoy the seafood there. Back in Makassar we tried to go to Trans Studio but it was too expensive and too little time to enjoy so we just ate at a recommended seafood restaurant there and we ordered some nice stuffs to eat. When you are in Makassar do not forget to buy Minyak Tawon (literally means Bee oil) kind a rub only that really works for even small wound on your skin.

Explore Indonesia, there are many things to explore and exotic ones. Going abroad is fifth or sixth options (when there is enough money..)

ISO 50001 Energy Management

International community is moving forward on Energy Efficiency. Right now there is already a draft of ISO 50001 which standardize Energy Management. Energy management is an essential component of efforts to increase the efficiency of energy usage. It is an essential part because energy efficiency and conservation needs clear plan, strategies, and target to achieve. Energy, in a production process, is an important part that affects the cost of production therefore managing energy usage wisely and methodically will lead to reduced cost of production and eventually increase the competitiveness of the product and also the company.

Indonesia will certainly adopt the standard. The head of Standardization Agency (BSN) has informed public that they are on the track of adopting the ISO standard. As soon as the international draft is approved and becoming operation ISO, Indonesian government will immediately adopt it.

There are some options of adaptation. First is full adaptation and only translation is needed. The second is slight changes and most of the ISO standard is included. This strategy needs longer time to finish. The last one is creating new national standard with the ISO standard as the reference. This last strategy takes longest time. BSN is likely to choose the fast track strategy, or 100% adopt the ISO. To my opinion, this strategy is the most appropriate one. Indonesia now is badly in a need of Energy Management standard to improve national competitiveness and also energy performance.

Hopefully many companies will in the future voluntarily apply the new ISO or new National Standard to improve their performance and competitiveness. Now there is a big need for energy managers.

Lesson of the day

a perdurable a day, helps you sleep, work and play

The sentence above is a bit difficult to understand for me. This has proved that I need to learn English more. Anyway, I guess the meaning of the sentence above is when you enjoy the day, you can sleep, work and also play a little bit. However, make the use of the day optimally is the challenge. Optimizing or tuning the system so that it uses energy more efficiently is a challenge. I am on the opinion that optimizing the energy system in Indonesia, especially, faces very big challenges. The challenges are not just technical but also non-technical.

Non technical challenges in optimizing energy systems for example are: regulatory framework and also the mindset of the people. Mindset of the people, especially the policy makers, would certainly affect the resulted policies. Policy makers can easily be affected by interests either personal interests or other interests. If the good for the greater is not in the list of interests then the policy will fail. I guess the failing of Indonesia's system is done more systematic now. People who understand laws and regulations bend and create new laws/regulations so that those laws/regulations can support their short term objective (most probably group interest or personal interest). For example fuel price. Government, especially the president, wants to be reelected and for that he/she did not reduce the subsidy for fuel price, instead keeping the subsidy that makes state financial condition get worse (at least higher debt is the sign).

So, I guess politics should be put far away from energy issues. Although it seems impossible (maybe one big example of this is the raid to Iraq), but let's hope that in the future it certainly will be possible. It's all depending on the young generation now. Let's educate them and create greener generations.

PrePaid Meter

Approximately 2 months ago I saw prepaid kWh meters are installed at some new houses in a housing estate near my home in Bogor. I was quite surprised that PLN did it since, as far as I know, PLN still in pilot testing phase for those kind of meters. the meters are installed at houses that are still constructed. I guess that was intended to secure the electricity payment by housing estate developer during the construction. The already inhabited houses (new ones) use normal kWh meter (not prepaid). According to the brick layers that are working in those houses, their foreman has to go to the bank to get electricity "credits" that later are charged into the meter by putting in codes. I did not see any external MCB, that usually accompany normal kWh meters. this meter should not be unlimited (by MCB) because basically it will make the power planning difficult for PLN.

searching the internet, I found that since 2005 PLN already started using prepaid kWh meters in Bali. Bali is the first because there are many houses or villas without are empty without any people staying. to avoid bad cash flow, off course, this prepaid system is very rational. After Bali, PLN then made the pilot projects in Jakarta and Tangerang area. In 2007 people in the thousand islands are equipped with prepaid kWh meter and starting 2009 the "land" customers have the chance to use this prepaid system also. According to the sources in the Internet there are now approximately 27.000 customers of PLN using prepaid system. PLN now limits the prepaid connection up to only 5.500 VA. This means the kWh meter system has a limiting device. I guess it can be electronically programmed to exactly trip when the current is reaching certain level.

I found this prepaid system both interesting and practical. It is interesting because it is new and opens many possibilities for privacy, flexible payment, and no penalties for late payment. there is no validity limit on the credits (not like most prepaid GSM systems). One still can use the 2 years old credit. This is great. It is practical because one can and have to manage his electricity consumption wisely. For budget limited families, this can be a useful solution. For example: one family only allocate IDR 50.000 per month for electricity. By adjusting power usage, this target can be achieved. One can buy the credits everywhere such as in banks, ATM, or directly to nearest PLN service points. However the lowest credit one can buy is IDR 100.000, but this can be used more than 1 month if a family uses electricity conservatively.

However there is one thing in my mind that is so far unanswered: the tariff. I guess the tariff still follows the national tariff now. Therefore tariff below and above 60 kWh will be different. What about the connection fee or the subscription fee? Is there any subscription fee? Is there any grace period, after the credit finish, before someone has the chance to recharge the credit? Does it temper proof? Are there any possibilities for someone to hack the system? PLN once said that this meter system will make their work easier since it is not needed to check the stand of the meter. But if rarely checked then there might be people trying to bypass the meter and tap the electricity directly from the connection cables.

The prepaid meter opens many opportunities both positive or negative. Now it’s time to prove the performance of the system and also it’s realibility.

First Half Year of 2010

Many things happen in the first half year of 2010. First thing is the birthday of my daughter. She is 1 year 4 months now and she officially walked her first step in February. As for me, end of January 2010 marked the third year I am with GTZ MHPP/AGMHP. Time flies very fast and you'll never realized it. This year I decided to reduce my working days from 5 days in a week to just 4 days in a week. The one day left suppose to be my personal working day. This means I can now look more on energy efficiency.

The decision to take 4 days working days for the office also due to the load I am having now. The load was so far not very heavy so that it gives me hard time to write for my blog. There are actually many important issues to share but the spirit is not there. Due to quite low work load, I am becoming lazy. But this has to change and it has to change now.

I also started my docstoc account. One can search for specific topic for example Demand Side Management Sinar Rinjani. The search result will certainly put my master thesis at the first row. The Docstoc account hopefully will expand my exposure. I hope many are enjoying my writing there. Beside my writings, there are also documents publicly available to download that comes from my project (GTZ supported). Hopefully with this Docstoc the good work can be replicated somewhere else.

Happy reading and do not hesitate to leave comments.

Happy new year