AKARTA, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Indonesian state energy company PT Pertamina is planning capital expenditures of $4.2 billion this year and will raise it to $7 billion in two years as part of plans to double its oil refinery capacity, chief executive Nicke Widyawati said.
Pertamina is under pressure from the government to expand its downstream production to reduce imports of refined oil products, which creates a trade deficit that weighs on the Indonesian rupiah.
“Starting from 2021, we will invest around $7 billion per year as these refineries (developments) are in progress,” Widyawati said in a meeting with journalists late on Thursday.
Pertamina plans to double its refining capacity to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2026 from around 1 million bpd currently, Widyawati said, to meet national fuel demand of around 1.4 million bpd.
Pertamina expects to import 351,000 bpd of gasoline this year, up from 324,000 bpd in 2018, according to a company presentation during the meeting.
The company is currently working on at least seven refinery projects, including the new Bontang and Tuban refineries and the upgrading of the Balikpapan and Cilacap plants.
To finance the investment, Finance Director Pahala Mansury said Pertamina has the capacity to raise funds through borrowing, but the company is actively looking for partners for certain projects.
“We are looking for investment partners. These are big investments and the return may take a while,” Widyawati said.
Meanwhile, Pertamina is targeting $58.85 billion in revenue in 2019, up from $56.06 billion in 2018. (Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; writing by Fransiska Nangoy; editing by Christian Schmollinger)
Southeast Asia’s urban population is projected to rise to nearly 400 million by 2030, requiring significant investment in waste management to cope with the increase in garbage. The growth in electricity demand is also prompting countries to more than double generation capacity by 2040.
One obvious and quick solution to these two needs is waste-to-energy, a catch-all for different technologies that allow countries to get rid of waste and generate electricity at the same time.
Traditional waste-to-energy methods like incineration tend to be unpopular with communities because of the associated health and environmental impacts.
But policymakers in Southeast Asia have looked at China, which has successfully rolled out waste-to-energy and now has the most capacity globally, and decided it is worth writing into national waste management plans. As countries decide what type of technology to use, it is vital that they learn from China’s rapid adoption.
Incineration is the cheapest and best known waste-to-energy technology, but countries should consider other types, as well as plan for the broader policy changes that are needed to make waste-to-energy a good long-term investment.
A burning opportunity
As living standards in the region rise, people will create more municipal solid waste from their homes, offices, shops and other public places. This is usually a mix of food leftovers, paper, plastic packaging, clothing, metal, glass and in some cases sewer sludge.
Most Southeast Asian countries depend on landfills to store this waste but there are problems with this approach.
A recent study shows that municipal solid waste in China, Thailand, Vietnam, India and Pakistan could more than double to over 600 million tonnes between 2015 and 2025. While landfills have been the cheapest method of disposal, the rapid growth of waste will be hard to handle. High demand for land near urban centres means that garbage is often packed into dense landfills, and there isn’t a system in place to deal with the resulting mountains of trash.
The costs of poor waste management are high: landfills use lots of space and pollutants can leach into the soil and surface water, harming the environment and people’s health. Gas from decomposing organic materials in landfills is a serious issue, forming about 11 per cent of all global methane emissions. Approximately 90 per cent of the world’s plastic waste is not disposed of properly, not even making it into landfill, which is one reason plastic is the largest single contributor to ocean pollution.
Incineration is the second most common way to deal with waste and seems like an obvious choice: it eliminates much of the physical burden of waste while producing much-needed energy.
In reality, waste-to-energy is complicated. While incineration eliminates physical waste, to be efficient it also requires pre-sorting materials to remove organic and non-flammable materials.
When well-managed, waste-to-energy can reduce the need for physical waste storage; manage the impacts on air, ground, and water pollution better than landfills; and utilise a domestically-available and sustainable resource for electricity production.
But in many cases incineration plants have not been well managed. Most emerging economies have limited or even no waste sorting processes. Ineffective pre-sorting reduces the cost effectiveness and efficiency of all waste-to-energy technologies. For incineration plants, this means the temperature does not get high enough to eliminate key pollutants. Even when well-managed, incineration plants still leave ash that needs to be disposed of safely.
Other commercial technologies largely depend on producing gas from waste. Gasification plants use plastic and organic solid waste in a chemical conversion process that creates and burns synthetic gas at high temperatures. Landfill with gas capture, fermentation, and anaerobic digestion all utilise controlled and catalysed processes of decomposition to generate methane and biogas from waste materials. These gases can be burned and utilised much like natural gas, and are generally more efficient than incineration.
Current situation in Southeast Asia
Thailand and Indonesia provide a useful snapshot of the difficulties faced by countries in Southeast Asia eager to utilise waste-to-energy.
The Thai government has established subsidies and tax incentives for various waste-to-energy plants, including incineration, gasification, fermentation and landfill gas capture. Installed capacity currently stands at 203 megawatts.
This is likely to grow, as licenses for up to 500 megawatts of waste-to-energy plants have already been granted and Thailand’s next Power Development Plan for 2018-37 may raise the license limit.
But a lack of waste sorting means the industry has faced a major issue with incineration plants. The trash in Thailand is too full of organic and other non-flammable materials so incineration plants cannot reach the high temperatures necessary to produce electricity and avoid toxic emissions and ash by-products.
This has led some local communities and civil society groups to protest over pollution and health concerns. Some incineration plants have also sought to offset the economic losses from inefficiently sorted local waste by illegally importing better-sorted trash.
Indonesia has faced similar challenges. Despite high-level government support for waste-to-energy in the face of serious waste management challenges and a biomass and waste energy target of 810 megawatts by 2025, few projects have moved ahead.
Progress has lagged because of a public backlash against incineration projects. Protests have been widespread, and in 2018 Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled that incineration of waste is against the law because it produces hazardous pollutants. But the government is pushing ahead regardless.
Learning from China
China can serve as a case study to help other countries identify the most sustainable way to move ahead with waste-to-energy because it has rapidly rolled out technologies while still developing.
Europe and Japan may have the most cutting-edge and efficient technologies, but the waste mix they process is quite different from that in emerging economies. China’s situation is far more comparable. Like other emerging economies, its waste tends to be “wet” – including both recyclable materials and organic waste like food waste and sewer sludge – and of low caloric value for burning.
China has made some progress towards utilising wastewater and other organic matter to produce biogas, but most installed capacity is from waste incineration. China had 7.3 gigawatts of energy production across 339 power plants in 2017. This is expected to grow to 10 gigawatts and 600 plants by 2020. The plants are primarily developed as a waste management solution, with energy a co-benefit.
There are three lessons that Southeast Asian countries can learn from China’s experience:
First, incineration works as a short-term solution to manage the waste crisis, but in the long-term emerging economies must establish effective waste sorting systems. By separating plastic and metal recyclables, organic materials and other materials, countries can use the best waste-to-energy technologies. A lack of sorting in China has led to a “wet” waste mix.
Second, moving beyond traditional incineration is important for sustainable operation of the plants and effective use of resources. China has successfully expanded waste-to-energy because it developed circulating fluidised bed technology, which is better suited for burning “wet” waste.
According to Jennifer Turner from the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum, 46 cities around China are experimenting with different methods of waste management in an effort to become “Zero Waste Cities”. Some are considering methane capture from sludge. Sludge doesn’t have enough organic material on its own to produce methane, but combining it with other food waste and feeding it into an anaerobic digester is far more environmentally friendly and productive than incinerating it.
Both of these innovations could have valuable applications in urbanising Southeast Asia. “There’s no single green bullet to solve China’s waste problem. Other countries should look to China and see the experimentation strategy as a lesson,” says Turner.
Finally, even China has faced environmental pushback over the impacts of waste-to-energy. There is debate over the extent to which traditional incineration and other waste-to-energy technologies will meet future needs. Many environmental experts have critiqued the transparency around pollutants from waste-to-energy plants inside China.
Given the broad challenges that China faces with monitoring environmental and health impacts from industrial processes, it is no surprise that protests from local communities have been a common response as waste-to-energy. Similar protests in Indonesia and Thailand show that this challenge is universal.
China’s experience – and potentially investment – can help emerging economies in Southeast Asia manage rapid growth in waste through careful and strategic use of traditional incineration along with other gas-based waste-to-energy plants. But in the long run, they will need to adopt other technologies and improve waste-sorting.
Singapore LNG Corp. Pte Ltd. (SLNG) has completed modifications to its secondary jetty at its terminal on Jurong Island, and it is now able to receive and reload small LNG ships of between 2000 m3 and 10 000 m3 in capacity.
This new small-scale LNG (SSLNG) facility, completed on 13 February 2019, will help spur the development of the SSLNG market in various forms; for example, in the supply of LNG to isolated power plants in remote areas in the region, or in the delivery of LNG as bunker fuel to ships in the Port of Singapore.
The SLNG terminal’s secondary jetty was originally designed to accommodate LNG ships of 60 000 m3 to 265 000 m3 in size. In June 2017, SLNG performed a Gas-Up/Cool-Down and Reload operation for the 6500 m3 LNG bunker vessel, Cardissa. Following on that success, and to better support SSLNG and LNG bunkering, SLNG took the initiative to commence modification works to its secondary jetty so that even smaller LNG ships could reload at the terminal. The modifications include the installation of a new marine loading arm and gangway, and new facilities for securing small LNG ships at the jetty.
Sandeep Mahawar, Interim CEO and Vice President (Commercial) of SLNG, commented:
“We believe that there is good potential for the SSLNG market to flourish in this part of the world, and the timely completion of the SSLNG facility is an important step forward in SLNG’s efforts to support this growth. It also serves to promote the development of LNG bunkering in Singapore, which is another potential growth area given Singapore’s already well-established reputation as the top bunkering port in the world. As demands builds and there is a viable business case, SLNG may consider installing topsides at its tertiary jetty to accommodate more SSLNG reloads.”
If the state of Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption in Singapore could be summed up in one word, that word would – until recently – have been “lacking”.
According to Land Transport Authority data, in 2016, there were only 12 EVs on Singapore roads. One factor that contributed to the poor adoption rate was the lack of infrastructure. In 2016, the country had 100 EV charging points.
Early-generation EVs also lacked useful range – often measured in tens of kilometres – as battery technology had not matured sufficiently. Early adopters were faced with a double whammy – a lack of range and charging stations – that made the daily commute a major exercise in range-anxiety management.
However, newer EVs that offer longer range, and other infrastructure and technological developments, are changing perceptions and altering the state of play, and the numbers are testament to this.
In 2017, the number of EVs on our roads increased to 314, and in 2018, the EV population rose to 560 – a stunning increase in percentage terms.
TIP OF THE ELECTRIC SPEAR
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Diesel power is the mainstay of Singapore’s public transportation bus and taxi fleet, for now. Recent moves by players like Grab and ComforDelGro to buy EVs and hybrids look set to herald a change in the status quo. Photo: Shutterstock
This shift away from fossil fuels seems to be gathering momentum in Singapore. For instance, in May 2018, when ComfortDelgro added new taxis to its fleet for the first time in almost one-and-a-half years, it bought 200 new Hyundai Ioniq Hybrids.
While these hybrid models still run on petrol, their engines are assisted by electric motors. The result? They use significantly less petrol than a comparable car, validating electricity’s ability to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.
The Ioniq is also available as an EV, which means it dispenses with the internal combustion engine altogether. ComfortDelGro began trials with this model last year. In January, it annnounced that it is expanding its EV trials with the other EV in Hyundai’s lineup, the Kona Electric.
Mr V A Moorthy, one of a handful of ComfortDelGro drivers participating in the trial, described it as an “awesome” experience. A ComfortDelGro driver for 18 years, he had previously driven a diesel-engined taxi.
“It is very quiet and smooth and I find that the safety features are very good. I feel very comfortable behind the wheel. I don’t have a noisy engine.
“In the past, when I topped up diesel, I could smell the diesel, which I don’t like. Now with an EV, I just plug in and enjoy the atmosphere. There’s no more smell of oil.”
Mr Moorthy added that he drives about 280km to 290km per shift. At the end of each shift, the car has about a 35-per-cent charge. He and his night-shift driver charge the car to 80 per cent capacity after their shifts.
“This takes about one hour and I use the time to clean the vehicle and take a short break.”
Grab’s recent purchase of 200 Hyundai Kona Electrics takes things further. The ride-hailing firm has been progressively introducing the EV into its fleet since January and this move may be the spark that ignites widespread EV adoption here.
“We feel that it is the right time to introduce a mass-market platform like this. The technology has improved to the point that it has become viable to be used on the private-hire vehicle scale,” GrabRentals Singapore’s head Kau Yi Ming told the press.
The company is rolling out a scheme that gives Grab EV drivers a 30-per-cent discount on charging rates. This will help bring down the already low costs of operating an EV, to the point where Mr Kau estimates that EV drivers will spend up to 70-per-cent less on energy costs than their colleagues who use petrol-engined cars.
Grab driver Ronal Goh has been using a Hyundai Kona Electric. He found the EV considerably cheaper to refuel than the petrol-engined car he had previously been using.
“Because I drive every day, I used to spend about S$350 per week on petrol. With an EV, I spend between S$90 and S$100 per week recharging it. On a full charge, I can sometimes exceed 500km (Hyundai states that the car’s official range is up to 482km).”
SENSE FOR SINGAPORE
Technology has played a huge part in this sudden growth in the EV market. Lithium-ion polymer batteries that offer greater storage capacity and can be charged faster are being produced in larger quantities. This reduces costs significantly, making it easier for manufacturers to incorporate them into electrified vehicles.
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A computer-generated image of the lithium-ion polymer battery pack used in the Hyundai Ioniq Electric. Lithium-ion batteries offer several advantages over other technologies like nickel metal hydride batteries, such as lighter weight and faster charging times. Photo: Hyundai
According to the United States Department of Energy, the median range of EVs increased from 73 miles (117km) in 2011 to 125 miles (201km) in 2018, an increase of 71 per cent.
Some newer models offer even greater range. For example, according to Hyundai’s figures, its Kona Electric (Long Range) model has a range of 482km. This translates to real-world practicality. It could, for instance, travel the length of Singapore’s coastline (193km) a little over two times on a single charge.
In addition to the improved range modern EVs offer, Singapore’s charging-station network is being expanded.
For instance, SP Group introduced 38 new charging points last year, with half of that number being fast-charging ports. These high-powered chargers can complete a charge in around 30 minutes, in comparison to the few hours a regular charger takes.
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
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Mr Wong Kim Yin, group chief executive officer of SP Group (left), and Mr Manohar Khiatani, deputy group CEO of Ascendas-Singbridge Group (right), demonstrating a high-speed electric vehicle charging point. Singapore’s rapidly expanding charging network is starting to make EV ownership a practical proposition in Singapore. Photo: Ascendas-Singbridge Group
SP Group’s move is just the first wave in the firm’s ambitious plan to scale up the availability of charging points exponentially. By 2020, it plans to have built 1,000 EV charging points, and moves like this are good news for EV owners, operators and manufacturers.
“By developing Singapore’s largest and fastest electric vehicle charging network, it will enable greater adoption of electric vehicles, helping our customers to go green, while saving energy and cost,” SP Group CEO Wong Kim Yin said.
SP isn’t the only player in the EV-infrastructure game. Greenlots, a US-based company specialising in EV charging and energy management software and solutions, has 200 charging stations in Singapore. Its recent acquisition by Shell signals the growing importance of EV-charging in the near future.
Besides its existing network of charging stations, Greenlots is also collaborating with ComfortDelGro to introduce more fast-charging stations.
This steep growth in charging-station availability means EVs have never been more viable, and other major fleet operators have also been quick to capitalise.
BlueSG, a subscription-based electric car-sharing company, has promised a 1,000-EV strong fleet by 2020 while taxi-operator HDT will run at least 800 EVs in its fleet by 2022.
The increasing popularity of electrified taxis and shared cars should be a boon for other EV car owners. A rise in the EV population can be expected to lead to an increase in supporting infrastructure, further fuelling EV adoption here.
AN ELECTRIC DAWN
What does this improved technology and wider infrastructure mean for EV owners? The opportunity, at last, to bid farewell to range anxiety.
But perhaps the most important factor is how a more advanced EV’s driving range is now practically a match for that of a petrol car, and certainly enough to make range anxiety a thing of the past. Looking at the Hyundai Kona Electric’s long-distance abilities, it’s clear that the EV is set to go very far in more ways than one.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/brandstudio/electric-vehicle-adoption-charging-ahead-11245978
The Hyderabad-based renewable energy firm will use the funds primarily for new initiatives such as building another 5 GW integrated renewables for round-the-clock supply through energy storage contracts.
Significantly, the company is aiming for 20 GW of storage-based energy contracts and its future capex is focused on that, Economic Times quoted while sharing the details of fresh investment.
Greenko plans to complete three new projects in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra by 2021, according to the report.
Singapore government-owned GIC (formerly known as Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) is the largest shareholder in Greenko with a 60% stake and investing $1.4 billion alone. The company founders own 25%, and Abu Dhabi government-owned ADIA the remaining 15%, it added.
Significantly, Greenko, which has grown through acquisitions in India, intends to become a more holistic solutions provider by meeting peak grid demand through clean energy sources. It believes the combination of its existing hydro, solar and wind projects with a 24/7 on-demand schedulable renewable power strategy to help Indian power distribution companies is the right next step in its growth trajectory.
Greenko claims to be the first company in India to receive licenses to build and operate integrated renewable energy projects from the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with an overall capacity of over 8 GW.
Last year alone, it spent close to $1 billion to acquire Orange and Skeiron Renewable Energy. “The combined deal of Orange and Skeiron added about 1,300 MW operating and near-completion wind and solar assets,” read a press statement of the company.
KOTA KINABALU: North Kalimantan Governor Dr H Iranto Lambrie has invited the State Government to work together in power generation infrastructure development in his province bordering Tawau.
He said Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) is presently doing a feasibility study to build a hydropower plant with generation capacity of 1,300 megawatts at Sungai Mentarang in the province.
SEB has a 50 per cent share in the project, which is being carried out in a joint venture with a Kalimantan-based company. I have also offered to Sabah through the Chief Minister,” he told a press conference in conjunction with the State-level socio-economic Malaysia-Indonesia (Sosek Malindo) Cooperation session at the Pacific Sutera Hotel, Tuesday.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, who was present, said he would ask the State Secretary to look into how the State can work with North Kalimantan on the matter.
“We will look into the power generation development in North Kalimantan. They have bigger capacity in terms of coal supply. There are a lot of facilities there. We are also confronted with limitation of supply,” he said.
The State Government is in the process of taking over the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd from Federal’s Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB).
“We need to study thoroughly the financial part of the take-over of the SESB proposal. I have asked for a special committee to be formed to study the financial arrangements (of the SESB takeover) because it involves huge amount of money.
“When that (the takeover) is realised then we will have a proper vehicle to talk about the power. I will look at all the available options later…even to Bakun (powerhydro) because there is excess supply to Lawas and Limbang.
“Currently, internally, we are also looking at how to have the West and East power grid linked. We have excess supply in the West of Sabah, but there is a shortage in the East. If we can link it up, in a short period of time, we will be able to resolve our power shortage problem…but that is not for the long-term period.
The Chief Minister said the State Government is still studying various aspects like the right locations and others for the implementation of the barter trade scheduled to start next month.
“We need to study thoroughly terms of the locations where to have it and other aspects, including specifications of ships and so on,” he said.
But he is confident the matter can be done smoothly with the cooperation of all those involved in the implementation of the barter trade.
“Rest assured, barter trade will benefit both the countries involved. It is not going to be just one sided,” he said. The matter was also raised during the Sosek Malindo technical committee meeting.
The majority of goods in sundry shops across North Kalimantan ranging from instant noodles to cooking oil and pampers are from Sabah, particularly Tawau, as it is too expensive to bring them in via Jakarta. – Larry Ralon
Cleantech Solar will develop a 10 MW of hybrid floating and rooftop solar power project for Chip Mong Insee Cement Corporation (CMIC) facility at Kampo, Cambodia.
Out of 10 MW solar project, 2.8 MW floating solar power project will be built on CMIC’s reservoir, and 7 MW solar project will be installed across multiple rooftops of the cement factory.
The project is expected to generate 297 GWh of clean energy and reduce 197,000 tons of CO2 emissions during its lifetime.
“We are committed to be a trusted company that is both environmentally and socially responsible. Adopting solar is an important step for us to help meet our energy requirements while at the same time reduce our CO2 emissions”, said Meng Leang, Chairman of Chip Mong Insee Cement Corporation.
Raju Shukla, founder of Cleantech Solar said, “In addition to environmental and social benefits, such as cutting emissions and promoting corporate social responsibility, the economic benefits of sourcing renewables will also include cost savings, long-term price stability and security of supply.”
Recently, Mercom has reported that Electricite du Cambodge (EDC), an electricity utility in Cambodia has invited bids to implement a 60 MW solar project in the country’s Kampong Chhnang province through an international competitive bidding process. The project will be developed on a build own operate (BOO) basis.
Southeast Asian countries have been actively pursuing solar in recent times.
Recently Mercom reported on the news of Suruhanjaya Tenaga (Energy Commission of Malaysia) issuing a 500 MW large-scale solar tender in Peninsular Malaysia.
In July 2018, Mercom reported on Thailand’s B.Grimm Power and Vietnam’s Xuan Cau signing a development cooperation agreement for a 420 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project located in Tay Ninh, south-west of Vietnam.
In April 2018, in an effort to expand the reach of solar power in Malaysia, the country’s leading utility company Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) entered into power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 60 MW of grid-connected solar PV projects.
Cambodian national utility company Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) has launched a tender offer for construction rights to a 60MW solar project in Kampong Chhnang province on a build-own-operate basis.
The project is the initial phase of a 100MW National Solar Park – which is being supported in a technical capacity by the Asian Development Bank – and a transmission system interconnection to supply power to the national grid.
According to EDC’s invitation for bid, signed by its managing director Keo Rattanak last week and obtained by The Post on Wednesday, winning developers will be required to develop, design, finance, build, operate and maintain the 60MW project. Power generated by the plant will be purchased by the EDC under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).
“The tariff proposed by the developer shall be less than $0.076 per kWh and be fixed throughout the term of the PPA,” read the EDC’s invitation letter.
The deadline for submitting the bidding document for the development of the project is no later than 10am on May 17 this year. EDC expects that the project will help the country to expand low-cost power generation and diversify it with a higher percentage of clean energy.
The National Solar Park will be the Kingdom’s third solar power project. Up to now, Cambodia has only one operational solar park, a 10MW project by Singaporean-owned Sunseap Asset (Cambodia) Co Ltd in Bavet town, a special economic zone of Cambodia in Svay Rieng province, near the border with Vietnam.
SchneiTec Group, in a joint venture between Cambodian and Chinese investors, is installing panels in its Kampong Speu province farm to build a 60MW solar power plant. The plant is expected to begin operation later this year.
Ministry of Mines and Energy spokesman Victor Jona said it is a government policy to offer lower electricity prices to consumers and having more energy sources connecting to the national grid will help fulfil the government’s plan.
He added that SchneiTec was awarded the construction of the Kampong Speu province solar plant with the price of electricity proposed at $0.076 per kWh.
“The rights to the investment [on the National Solar Park] will be based on an auction,” he said.
“If [potential bidders] meet technical bid specifications and are able to offer the lowest price to the EDC, the firm will [obtain construction rights].”
According to a 2018 annual report by the Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC) – the Kingdom’s electricity regulator – Cambodia’s renewable energy supply remained very low at the end of last year.
The report showed that Cambodia’s power demand is currently supplied mainly by hydropower and coal power plants, which account for around 48 per cent and 34.5 per cent of generation respectively. Around 15 per cent was imported from neighbouring countries.
