First Unit of Sarulla Geothermal Power Plant Begins Commercial Operation

By Anca Gagiuc

Sarulla Geothermal Power Plant

Reno, Nev. & Tokyo—Toshiba Corp. and Ormat Technologies Inc. announced that the first unit of the Sarulla geothermal power plant commenced commercial operation. The facility, one of the world’s largest power plants, is situated in Indonesia’s North Sumatra, operated by Sarulla Operations.

The Sarulla power plant has a capacity of roughly 110 megawatts and combines flash and binary technologies to provide high efficiency and 100 percent reinjection of the exploited geothermal fluid. Toshiba supplied the geothermal steam turbines and generators (STGs) for the flash systems, while Ormat provided the conceptual design of the Geothermal Combined Cycle Unit (GCCU) power plant and supplied its Ormat Energy Converter (OEC), which serve as the condensing units for the steam turbines. Toshiba and Ormat will continue to work together and promote geothermal combined cycle flash and binary systems, while actively seeking to utilize and promote renewable energy globally.

“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.”

“The commencement 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. 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.”

Image courtesy of Ormat Technologies