On Tuesday, the first of five contracted floating power stations was inaugurated by the president of Indonesia. The barge carrier Zeynep Sultan was converted to carry 125 megawatt plant and will enter service in North Sulawesi by the end of the year. It is the Sultan’s first deployment.
Indonesian government when confronted with problems acquiring land had found a faster solution of floating powerships by investing $50 billion to generate 35 gigawatts by 2020. The remote eastern islands of Indonesia including Sulawesi, Halmaherah, Maluku and Papu will greatly benefit from inexpensive HFO and relocate as needed around Indonesia’s far-flung archipelago. The stations are owned and operated by powership operator Karadeniz Holdings of Turkey. Officials expect that deployment will be complete by the middle of 2016.
The plants are built around dual-fuel engines, able to run on either HFO or LNG. As HFO is presently much economical, millions on fuel costs can be saved every year. A floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) option is also being considered.
Source: Reuters
