InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – Palm oil is one kind of plantations that produces oil the most and it is consumed in Indonesia and by the world. It could be processed to food, cosmetic, to the cleaning products and could be the source of biofuel or biodiesel. It is also cheap and easily to produce and makes the palm oil as the mainstay commodity in Indonesia and it massively contributes the economy nationally.
Palm oil plantations are mostly developed in Asia, Africa, and South America for the trees need enough sunshine, warm temperature, and good rain to maximize the production. Indonesia is the good country to develop palm oil knowing that Indonesia has tropical climate. It is no doubt if palm oil is the mainstay commodity and we should advantage it well.
In the late days, PT. PLN (Persero) planned to substitute the diesel power plant (pembangkit listrik tenaga diesel/PLTD) to be 100% using crude palm oil (CPO). This is about to reduce the fossil energy usage in the electricity and help the government to decrease fuel imports.
There are four power plants becoming the pioneers to fuel substitution to CPO and they are in process. The diesel power plants are PLTD Batakan within the capacity 50 megawatt (MW) in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; PLTD Supa in Pare-Pare within the capacity 62 MW; PLTD Kanaan in Bontang, East Kalimantan within the capacity 10 MW, and gas power plants in Jayapura, Papua within the capacity 10 MW.
As quoted from Liputan6.com, Director of Corporate Plan, PT. PLN, Syofvi Felienty Roekman said that to substitute the power plants, PT . PLN should modify the generator and some components. But there is no information about the investment to spend in the component substitution.
Meanwhile, Director of Business, PT PLN region Eastern Java, Bali, and Nusa Tenggara, Djoko Rahardjo Abumanan said that the changing fuel used from the fuel to CPO would reduce the fuel consumption in the electricity for about 190 thousand kilo liter (kl) per year. (Writer: Linda Ramadhanti/ Student of Agribusiness, Faculty of Agriculture, 2017/ Universitas Padjajaran)
