REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LHOKSEUMAWE -- A new 184 megawatts power plant has been officially commissioned in Aceh to strengthen power supply in the country's westernmost province.

The gas machine powered electric station (PLTMG) was commissioned by President Joko Widodo in the village of Meuria Paloh, Lhokseumawe on Thursday.

Sofyan Basir, the president director of PLN, the national power utility company, said the new power plant will supply more than 50 percent of power requirement in the province of Aceh.

Also present at the commissioning ceremony were Minister of State Enterprises (BUMN) Rini Soemarno, chief of the presidential staff Teten Masduki, and Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah.

Sofyan said the PLTMG, which is already in operation since 21 December 2015 also strengthen the power interconnection for the northern part of Sumatra (Sumbagut).

"We strongly hope that the operation of the new power plant would also draw more investors to Aceh, accelerate ecomnomic development including tourism development," he said.

The power plant in the complex of PT Arun NGL, at Jalan Raya Medan-Banda Aceh Gate 53, in the city of Lhokseumawe was built with an investment of Rp1.4 trillion with construction started in June 2014.

PLTMG, which is operated by PT Pembangkitan Jawa Bali (PJB), a subsidiary of PLN, constituted a realization of synergy between a state-owned company PT Wijaya Karya, as the contractor and PT Perta Arun Gas, a subsidiary of PT Pertamina , as the supplier of gas.

The gas machine was supplied by Wartsila Finland, the generator from ABB, and the main transformer from Hyundai.

Currently , the effective power supplying capacity in Aceh is only 384 MW, with peak load at 340 MW or a reserve of 44 MW.

The capacity includes 184 MW from PLTMG Arun , PLTU Nagan Raya 180 MW, and PLTD Lumbata 20 MW.

Sofyan said in the 350,000 MW program , Sumatra is to contribute 8,700 MW, including PLN 1,100 MW and independent power producer (IPP) 7,600 MW.

Sofyan referred to the government's program to build power plants with a total capacity of 35,000 MW until 2019.

He said Sumatra also needs to build 1,900 kms of transmission cable and electrical relay stations with a capacity of 32,000 MVA in 398 locations in the country's second most populated island.

"Certainly it is not an easy job to bring to reality the 35,000 MW power project. There are a host of problems, technical and non technical, to be removed in the process from planning to construction, notably in land clearing," he said.

The government has placed power infrastructure high in priority in its development agenda in line with the Presidential Regulations No. 3 in 2016 and No 4 in 2016 on acceleration of power infrastructure development.

The commissioning of PLTMG Arun was part of the agenda of President Joko Widodo in his working visit that also brought him to Bangka Belitung , where he also commissioned electricity projects on Wednesday.

From Aceh, the president proceeded to Pontianak, West Kalimantan and from there to Gorontalo , northern Sulawesi for similar purposes.

Power requirement in the country is predicted to grow 8.8 percent annually in the next five years with electrification ratio target set at 97.4 percent by the end of 2019.

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