Sarulla Geothermal Plant's First Unit Now Operational
One of the world's largest geothermal power plants has begun commercial operation in Indonesia, Toshiba Corporation and Ormat Technologies Inc. announced.
One of the world's largest geothermal plants has begun commercial operation. The Sarulla geothermal power plant in Indonesia's North Sumatra, rated at approximately 110 MW, combines flash and binary technologies -- Toshiba Corp. provides the flash technology and Ormat Technologies Inc. the binary technology -- to provide a high-efficiency power plant. It is operated by Sarulla Operations Ltd.
Toshiba supplied the geothermal steam turbines and generators for the flash systems, while Ormat provided the conceptual design of the Geothermal Combined Cycle Unit power plant and supplied its Ormat Energy Converter, which serves as the condensing units for the steam turbines and utilizes the separated brine for maximum resource exploitation and maximum power output.
"We are very proud to have installed our highly reliable geothermal STGs in one of the world's largest geothermal power plants. Toshiba has the number one market share in the geothermal sector. We continue to support development of power and infrastructure solutions in Indonesia," said Takao Konishi, vice president of Toshiba's Energy Systems & Solutions Company.
Ormat is based in Reno, Nev. Its CEO, Isaac Angel, said that the start of commercial operation at Sarulla "is a significant milestone for Ormat, both as an owner of SOL and as a supplier of our 25-year-proven binary technology. The Sarulla supply contract is the largest single contract that Ormat has signed to date. We manufactured and delivered our equipment ahead of schedule, mainly due to the improvements implemented across our entire value chain and to our professional teams. We continue to share our expertise as work continues on the second and third units of the Sarulla project that are expected to come on line by 2017 and 2018, respectively."
He added that "Ormat's proven GCCU technology, which was also utilized in the Sarulla reservoir, will assure optimal and sustainable utilization of the resource to deliver to Indonesia clean, cost-effective, and baseload capacity."
Toshiba and Ormat signed a Strategic Collaboration Agreement in 2015 and won orders to supply Unit 2 of the Kizildere III Geothermal Combined Cycle Unit Power Plant in Turkey.