Capacity Upgrade by Turbine Modification at Gunung Salak Geothermal Power Plant and Its Voluntary Emission Credits Generation

Abstract

Geothermal energy source is one renewable source that is abundant all over Indonesia due to its location on the ring of fire. PT. Indonesia Power, an Indonesian power generation company, is aware that geothermal power plant capacity upgrade could be one solution to increase electricity generation from renewable energy. Meanwhile, other power generation companies consider new geothermal power plant construction as an option to generate more renewable electricity. Turbine modification at Gunung Salak Geothermal Power Plant was conducted to get 3 x 5 MW additional capacity by increasing its diaphragms nozzle size without changing the whole initial system. The additional capacity will be also registered against the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) 2007, that will generate Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs) similar to Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) issued by UNFCCC through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The paper will elaborate the modification of steam turbines and also its voluntary credits registration due to capacity upgrade activity at one renewable power plant, in this case geothermal power plant.