Catatan Perjalanan - Just Some Notes

Hydropower Investment - Where to?

2010-08-10T13:55:00.000+07:00

Hydropower is always related to rainfall. Area that is dry (low rainfall) suppose to be not very attactive for hydropower investment. Let's take a look only on the rainfall information. According to the latest document of Bappenas, the Indonesia Climate Change Sectoral Roadmap (ICCSR), rainfall in all areas in Indonesia will change. The changes are either an increase or a decrease. The simulation reported that Sumatera and Papua will have mostly increases of rainfall. Download ICCSR report here.

In Sumatera, central to south Sumatera might have significant increase of rainfall intensity. Siginificant increase means bigger than 25 mm and lower than 50 mm. Central to North Sumatera might have significant increase and very significant increase (higher than 50 mm). In Papua, all areas will have significant increase of rainfall with some months might have very significant increases of rainfall intensity.

There are at least two conclusions. The first is, provided that the forest in Sumatera and Papua is well preserved, the increase of rainfall will not create flooding. This means this is good for hydropower investment. Although using water power, hydropower is actually do not very much like flood. Flood will bring sediments and debris that can ruin the scheme and lowering the service. The opposite will happen if the forest is destroyed.

The second conclusion is that increase of rainfall will certainly increase the risk of distribution network failure. This means low grid availability. For hydropower businessmen, low grid availability means market is closed. No income at all. In this case, higher rainfall intensity will just make hydropower investment attractiveness falls down to lower point.

Anyway, hydropower investment is certainly depending on hydro available hydro potential. Higher rainfall means bigger availability of hydro potential. However one has to consider: who will consume the electricity? how is the catchment area condition? what about grid availability? is there any supporting infrastructures in the area? etc.

With those things in mind I would say investing hydropower in Sumatra area might be more profitable than in Papua. But, still it depends on the government. If the government says go to Papua then PLN will do it, not private sector.

Cheers.

No One Helps the President

2010-08-02T09:46:00.000+07:00

Everyone who seeks for justice goes to Jakarta and tries to get justice from the president. Those who are already desperate go to Jakarta. The latest case is actually a 15 years old case. A father from Malang, East Java, have walked more than 1000 kms to go to Jakarta and sees for justice. His son was a victim of traffic accident. His son is dead. The one who hit his son was a police officer. The police never went to jail. The father sees that as injustice so he went to Jakarta to get it from the president.

Not just justice that people ask from the president. The president also get blammed by many. For example in the case of exploding LPG cans. People blame the president for being silent and seems not doing anything. Another example is in the case of price hike. Recently prices are skyrocketing and has made inflation almost reached 1% in just one month. People blamed the president for seems not doing anything to cool down the price hike.

With all those things ended at presidential palace, there is only one conclusion. People still have faith in the president and believe that he can solve all problems (although it's impossible). Beside that major conclusion, there are other "minor" conclusions that follow. The first is that the system does not work. Either it is justice system or other systems, they just does not work. They need president's words to work, and sometimes the results are still not satisfactory.

Second minor conclusion is that, following the not working system, man power in the system also are incapable in doing their job or blind them selves or do not care of the problems lying around them. Third minor conclusion is that the bigger system (the state system - government, parliament, and law) does not work well also. They just do not work hand in hand for the sake of nation. They (means government and parliament) compete with each other and weakens the state system and make social cost high.

If one looks at national level (central) this might be what happening right now and examples like this is replicated in the regional level that further slows down the development and make the operation of governmental system costly. People do not get anything. Foreign countries just make fun of Indonesia and take any advantages of Indonesia. This should be stopped. \

The key is efficiency. Efficiency is not just for energy but also for other systems. Corruption/gratification or anything like that are characteristics of inefficient state. Corruption must be wiped out. It can not be done in one night by men (unless God wants it). Wiping corruption starts from home, start from one's self, start from our children. Materialistic world must be balanced with spritualism. People should not just chasing money or gold, beyond that they should have chase balance in life. Spiritualistic happiness and something like that. Success is not about how much money you have but how much you have given to other people (money or help or knowledge). Spiritualistic happiness is invaluable. One can not buy such happiness.

Therefore, let's help the president by doing good starting from our selves.

The Gasoline Problem

2010-07-28T11:05:00.000+07:00

It was few months ago when the government started the campaign to reduce the consumption of subsidized gasoline. Not very long after that, there are many "fuel pump" problems. Fuel pumps get clogged and even burnt. Many found that there is something wrong with the gasoline (at least their preliminary conclusion). Not very long after that two big taxi operators also reported that hundreds not to mention thousands cars of their fleet also have fuel pump problems. This creates suspicion to the government. Many says that government through state owned oil company try to reduce the consumption of subsidized fuel (gasoline) by putting something bad in the liquid.

All the allegations have not been proved. No one still can not prove that either government or state own company or even the car user or the fuel station owner played dirty. The state own company defended it self to being strict to the standard. Everything come out from their refineries or central distribution points are tested according to the regulation and standard. There are no violations what so ever. Taxi operators even sent the fuel sample to an independent lab in Thailand for a test and the lab showed that the gasoline has too much sulfur content. Sulfur content is always a problem for the diesel fuel here in Indonesia. The quality of diesel fuel is not so clean. Sulfur content is a bit high so that advance common rail systems would not drink it. I am a bit afraid that the fuel station wrongly refuel the underground tanks. The one usually for diesel fuel is refilled with gasoline. They mix and increase sulfur content in the gasoline. But, how likely this is in reality? I guess zero.

Next question will be: is the sulfur content really the core of problem? Does it make the fuel pumps died? I did not do deep Internet research on this but if the sulfur is mixed with water (even the smallest part in the fuel), it might create an acidic chemical that can create problems with metals. If this is the case then the fuel tanks should also be leaking not just the fuel pumps breaking. What about the slurry like deposits in the fuel pump filter? what it is? We still do not know. Investigating team is now working on that. They are working to find out what has been wrong with the subsidized gasoline chain of distribution and quality.

In some internet forum it is said that if the fuel station owners try to cheat, they will cheat on the volume not with quality. In the old days when the diesel fuel price is lower than the gasoline, they might try to mix those fuel and get more volume of "mixed" gasoline. These days that modus does not apply. If fuel quality is the problem then it might come from the refinery. Maybe at the refinery the test was not done very well since I am quite sure that the tests are conducted randomly. If the fuel is imported then the refinery on the other side of the earth is the problem. The investigation team must find it.

The underline message is: let's not use car as much as now. Reduce and use public transport or do you bicycling routine. The fuel pump problem will not rise up if the rich use better fuel (RON 92 or more). Many nice cars are still using subsidized fuel. Last time I refuelled, I saw a new Honda CRV filling the tank with subsidized fuel. It's a pity and also a sad condition. Rich people in Indonesia are not ready to be rich. They are just oportunists.

Only the Bill that Makes People Worry....

2010-07-07T12:41:00.000+07:00

world cup has made a slight increase on the power demand. world cup finals in south africa are played at night in Indonesia. time difference of approximately 4-6 hours between south africa and indonesia (jakarta) has created this situation. during the group matches the games are played between 6 p.m. to around 11 p.m. Indonesian time. In the knock out phase, the games are played between 9 p.m. to around 3 a.m. and semi finals are played at even later time. they starts at 1.30 a.m.. I guess the final will also be played at around 1.30 a.m..

for football fans, the knock out round, semi finals and final are the most interesting rounds of the world cup finals. this has made them stay awake longer than before. the longer those tvs on, the more electricity is consumed. however there are also people that prefer watching the matches with friends or colleagues. this means they watch the tv not at home and maybe only one tv on for, let's say 5-10 people. this has made significant power saving compared to one tv for 1-2 people only. In Indonesia, only the national broadcaster that broadcast the matches. sattelite or pay tv customers are not able to see it via the subscription tv. this might further reduce the possibilities of more tv to be on at late night.

the power utility reported that there was no significant increase in power demand during the early stages (group elimination) of the world cup finals. However it reported that during the knock out round there was a slight increase of power demand. early stages of the world cup might not be interesting enough for many, but when it comes to knock out round the games might be more interesting for more people therefore there was an increase of power demand.

with the increase of electricity tariff in July 2010, people might get a litthe shock when they receive the bill next month. August is also the month of Ramadhan or the fasting month. it is for sure that there will be more activities at home at early morning. this will create significant increase of power demand. anyway, as long as the power reserve is enough then there is nothing to worry, except maybe the bill.

Not the Right Time

2010-07-01T12:40:00.000+07:00

Currently Indonesia is experiencing a strange climate condition. It is already July now and in July usually we have dry season with very very little rain. Instead of being very hot and dry, there are still rains throughout Indonesia. The meteorological bureau says that the anomaly is caused by La Nina phenomenon which extend the rainy season in Indonesia.

With this in mind, measuring flow using grab method is not recommended in 2010. For the purpose of simplicity many MHP (micro isolated ones) planners are using grab method (either using current meter, salt dilution, or even the float method) to get the base flow of a stream. THe base flow is usually available at the driest moment in dry season (usually between July and August in many of Indonesian islands, although there is always local variation). Measuring the base flow in 2010 would need very conservative factor. I would say roughly the factor would be 0.5 (to be safe). So if one measures 500 liters per second in August 2010, he/she should multiply it with 0.5 to get a safe approximation of the base flow.

Things would be safer if there is rainfall data to collect. Using the data, one can determine whether 2010 is a wet year or very wet year. If it is very wet then the factor might be even smaller than 0.5 (say 0.4) to be on the safe side.

I guess my recommendation for anyone who would like to measure flow in the wet dry season like now is to get the rainfall data from nearest station/s (I would say at least from 2 stations with at least 5 years rainfall data). Get the approximation for the factor and calculate with your field finding. I hope with this one can get a safe approximation of base flow for the design of isolated MHP. Or, do not measure this year and just postpone the development for next year.

DG Suspected for Corruption

2010-06-29T15:32:00.000+07:00

Just got a shocking news today. Anti Corruption Commission has made the DG of DGEEU as the suspect in the corruption case at DGEEU. It is suspected he and one other suspect has marked up the price in the tender of solar home system project back in 2007-2008.

I have heard many versions of this mark up. One says that old-non broken SHS systems was bought back from the villagers at very cheap price and sold at much higher price. Other say that the contractor won some projects but only one or two are reported. The rest is just money and never been applied in the field. It's just some options that I heard and understood. I guess there are many other strategies to cheat the government budget.

As far as I observe, those that are managing projects at DGEEU are now being very careful and try not to break the law. They already understood the consequences. Before the KPK's latest decision, there are many of DGEEU staffs that were interviewed by KPK. Some were interviewed more than 10 hours. I guess it was from them that KPK can come to above conclusion. I hope with this, DGEEU will be better and I hope the new DG will be even better than DGEEU.

The news can be found in this link (bahasa)

Measuring "Greeness" of a Company

2010-06-18T10:13:00.001+07:00

I was on a drive to a meeting when my colleague mentioned that Mercedes has just revealed its new car. The conversation develops to why Mercedes is able to sell a car at higher price. At the same level of technology (i.e. less emission per mile driven) or better Mercedes sell the car at higher price. This means to reach the same income level, Mercedes only needs to sell fewer cars than Toyota or Honda. If the car is driven for the same distance then emission per monetary unit paid to get the car is less for Mercedes. It seems the Mercedes is greener than the other two.

Let's assume that the amount of material for manufacturing one car is almost the same. With GEMIS software one can assume the emission of 1 kg of steel and any other material to build a car. If two cars from different manufacturers weight almost the same and use almost the same amount of material then the emission to produce the car will be almost the same. If there is a price difference then the expensive one will be more environmentally friendly per monetary unit of price.

Does it mean that the more expensive stuffs are more environmentally friendly (at least from the emission parameter)? I guess the rough theory must be further proved. Not all expensive stuff are environmentally friendly for example gold. One has to dig the whole mountain and put many chemicals for purification to get gold. I guess gold is not the most environmentally friendly product.

I am not afraid that this will make producers increasing the price of their products to get a greener image. This is just a crazy idea that come to my mind yesterday.

Official - Electricity Tariff Increase July 2010

2010-06-15T09:41:00.002+07:00

BASIC ELECTRICITY TARIFF WILL BE INCREASE BY 10% IN JULY 2010.

It is already in the news that Government of Indonesia will increase the basic electricity tariff by 105 in July 2010. By doing this, the government can reduce the subsidy up to IDR 800 billion per month and thus can reduce government spending and avoid budget deficit. I personally say this is a good news. I might have higher electricity bill next August, however this is a real momentum for energy efficiency measures. Government should and must make bigger campaign on energy efficiency and conservation. More news in Detik Finance (in bahasa).

PLN Says - Free Electricity for Poor People

2010-06-15T08:47:00.002+07:00

Director of PLN mentioned this idea to provide free electricity for poor consumers. Poor consumers according to his definition are those who have 450 VA connections. According to his calculation, PLN will only lost IDR 1.5 trillion if electricity is free for poor consumers. His argues that if the new tariff is applied PLN will profit IDR 20 trillion from richer consumers. If tariff is applied and no exceptions are made PLN will profit roughly IDR 40 trillion.

Opinions are divided into two groups. Those that are supporting the idea say that all other state owned companies should also do that as social obligation. Those who against the idea say that such thing will only create complex conditions, opening more holes for corruption, making PLN suffers from lost (despite calculation above) and many other reasons.

I am actually on the "against" side. My reasons are:

Free electricity is against energy conservation. Everyone has to be aware that it is the time to conserve energy and free things will just make people taking it for granted. This is not educative
Free electricity might create "electricity theft" condition especially in dense urban area where checking electricity meter is sometimes impossible. This will eventually give burden to PLN financial condition and government's financial condition that might lead to economic crisis due to too much government spending
There is no such free things. There is no free electricity because even people using solar power or wind power still have to invest for the equipment. Free things tend to make people being irresponsible
It is important to alleviate poverty so making people responsible for their lives is an important part of the process and at the same time there are actions to give them opportunities to be well off. Government should not make poverty worse by giving consumptive subsidy. Subsidies should be carefully planned to activities that can make poor people have more income. I believe the strategy to provide fishing rod and good fishing pond rather than the strategy to give people the fish directly.

Anyway, this idea is still just an idea. The director of PLN was actually a bit irritated by parliament members who are not able to comprehend the complexity of the sector. The Parliament is not supporting this idea and also the ministry of energy. The increase of base electricity tariff will be nation wide and for everybody, no exceptions. It is expected that in Jul7 2010, the base electricity tariff will be increased. It is a good momentum for SBY government since he does not have to be reelected in 2014. The Impact? More energy efficiency project off course... :)

Energypedia.info - new renewable energy portal

2010-06-10T09:52:00.001+07:00

The global energy program called Energizing Development or EnDev was initiated approximately 3 years ago by the Dutch government. It is also basically a cooperation program between Dutch government and German government. The target of EnDev is giving energy access to approximately 10 million people before 2015 (target year of MDG). EnDev is implemented by GTZ and operating in 19 developing countries in the world and active in four main areas of activities namely: energy for cooking, energy for household, energy for social infrastructure, and energy for productive use.

There is no limit for the type of renewable energy technology to be developed. There are hydro projects, biogas project, improved stove projects etc. For Indonesia it is focused on hydro power. Mini Hydro Power Project (MHPP) is the manifestation of EnDev in Indonesia. Operating for 3 years, there are many lessons learned and to accommodate dissemination and replication EnDev launched a rural energy portal called Energypedia at the following address http://www.energypedia.info/.

Those who are active in the projects around the world can write down their experiences and report the results of their projects. There are many good stuffs there to read or to download. This portal is semi closed portal therefore one has to register and it needs an approval from the moderator. As soon as one has registered, he or she can start browsing the content. There are many interesting content and if there are any new updates the site will automatically send notification to set email address.

It's worth registering to the site and learn from what they have done.

Special Allocation Fund - Model for Rural RE Implementation

2010-06-08T13:03:00.000+07:00

In the recent years government of Indonesia spent lot of money to electrify rural areas. There are many programs such as decentralization fund support, energy independent village, rural electrification, energy facility support from Ministry of Under Developed Areas, and also Kecamatan Development Project (KDP) project under Ministry of Internal Affairs. Beside those major programs there are smaller projects by local governments, non government organizations and other government institutions.

In short, there are many models of implementation and so far there is no evidence of the best implementation model that can be used by many and replicated easily. Implementation model applied by NGOs usually are close to ideal however the success rate is also questionable since there is not enough information. Quite ideal here means there is a combination of top down and bottom up approach. The level of community involvement is usually also quite high and there is specific activity to facilitate the community to be ready with the new installation. Government's implementation model varies between implementing Ministries. The common characteristics of government's approach are top down, little community participation, and lack of monitoring and supervision.

Since the volume of government projects is much bigger than of NGO or other smaller institutions, there is a need to have a model that can guarantee success and government of Indonesia intends to make the Special Allocation Fund for Rural Energy as the example. The Special Allocation Fund (SAF) has been applied to other sectors such as health and education. SAF give financial support to local governments to implement projects that are fulfilling central government's role. SAF is included in local govt budget. There are three main criteria for a regency to get SAF support; general, specific and technical. The first two are not closely related to the sector (e.g. education, health or energy). The third one is specifically designed for the sector.

There are risks of SAF implementation especially in the rural energy component. Proposal of projects will be submitted by regency offices which so far has no track records in providing good proposals. Implementation will be carried out by regional governments with, maybe, low supervision capability. Money is directly transferred to regional government's account without any ear mark, therefore regional government can use the money for other purposes. Those are just some of many risks. SAF implementation needs stronger efforts in capacity development, and also improvement of SAF disbursement mechanism.

Ministry of Energy is the only Ministry that will implement rural energy projects, therefore there will be no more projects from Ministry for the Under Developed areas or other Ministry. This is actually very good because, technical ministry should understand better about the sector and how to implement it. The challenge for the Ministry of Energy will be how to successfully implement SAF and how to monitor its implementation. A feedback loop should be created since so far there is no such system. Feedback loop can ensure better implementation of SAF in the future phases.

In 2011, Directorate General for Electricity and Energy Utilization (or the new DG) will do the test phase for one year. Hopefully this new model will be successful. Here is a link (in bahasa) reporting about SAF policy by Bappenas.

Interesting Banner - Anti Graft Banner

2010-06-07T10:13:00.000+07:00

I found this banner this morning when I arrived to the office. My office is actually in a government building and this banner looks like a campaign to me. Showing this banner proves that there is something wrong in their system. There must be something wrong, if not they will not put the banner.

Indonesia is among the most corrupt countries according to transparency international. The corruption index is 2.2 and at the same level as Iraq (which as you know are in war, which makes corruption quite reasonable). I guess this shows how the government looks like. Despite (maybe) quite high economic development, there is still lack of character development. It is true that money or something like that corrupts the character of people.

It says there that any services is free of charge. Although my English is not the best but I already can see that the sentence is wrong. I guess it should say "any services are free of charges". This is deeper than just a sentence. This is a proof that the office (or the management of that particular office) does not want the corruption goes away. Since the sentence is wrong there is no obligation to follow. Maybe the people printing the banner already made a mark up of the banner price so that he/she can have personal benefit.

Let's assume any services are free of charges but in return the services will take years or decades to finish. Once I had a conversation with a mini hydro developer. He said, PLN is not a problem because if the offer is interesting enough PLN will take the offer. Local government is also not a problem because investment means tax and new jobs for the people. The real problem for interconnection is licensing. It can take months or years to get a license from the office where I am stationed. If one needs it fast he/she need to provide some under table money. This might be just personal action but institutionally that kind of action ruins the credibility of that office and further slowing down the development of the sector.

The other thing is project awarding. It is already well know for any consultants or contractors that they will not get 100% of contract money. I heard that for an energy audit work, the consultant only get approx 20% of the money. Where does the 80% goes? No wonder KPK really keep their eyes on this particular office. If one has the chance to visit this office, one will easily notice nice cars of the officers.

Corruption is a sickness and it is very bad in Indonesia. The one trying to make improvements are kicked out with any means. For example the former minister Sri was kicked out to the World Bank. KPK is experiencing legal challenges and many other examples. I guess what it needs now is new generation and this is not happening unless God do something.

Basic Hydro Power - Part 4

2010-06-04T09:28:00.001+07:00

Understanding the principle of head and flow and the importance to get correct data of them, then it is time to know more about components of a scheme. The basic components of a micro hydro scheme is illustrated below (source: MHP Scout Guide, GTZ Ethiopia).

It's start from the flow diversion structure that diverts water to the intake structure. Then water is channeled via headrace channel and eventually reaches forebay tank before entering the penstock. Different setup might happen especially for reaction turbines (e.g propeller) which usually need draft tube instead of penstock. Exiting penstock, water enters the turbine and move the runner that will drive generator to generate electricity. Turbine, generator and control equipments are stationed in a power house.

So basically those are the components of an MHP scheme. The rest e.g. trash rack, spill way, gates, valves are considered as important accessories. Some components such as intake structure and forebay tank also have other function such as flow regulation and suspended solid sedimentation. Flow regulation can be done using gates and also spillways. Sedimentation can be achieved by specific design of the tank. Since water quality is also important aspect (solid content and also chemical characteristic (acidic for example) of water), then examination of water sample is also important. This will define the material quality to be used and make approximation of equipment lifetime.

Anyway, understanding the core components of simple, conventional MHP scheme is very important because usually those components (civil components) take up most of the construction cost. The more difficult terrain one has, the more money you need to provide. But it is also depending on the level of service wanted. Simple small service does not need massive and complete components. There are very small systems (below 1 kW) that can run (maybe not reliable enough) smoothly with simple and cheap scheme components (e.g. PVC pipes, no concrete diversion structure etc.). This kind of system might only serves one family or two. Conventional electrified water wheels use this kind of approach (non pressurized system).

Sizing the scheme is another discussion. For now, knowing the components and roughly knowing where to put the component is more important. A kind of sharp 6th sense can be developed for siting MHP components. One only needs to practice a lot and fail a lot and cope with the available budget. For more reading one can check this Good & Bad of Mini Hydro Power.

First Fly to Europe

2010-06-03T12:37:00.000+07:00

Garuda eventually flew to Europe on the 1st of June 2010. The flight was the first flight after the ban was lifted last year. Only two airlines from Indonesia are allowed to fly in the European sky and one of them is Garuda (the national carrier). Garuda flew to Amsterdam and I guess this is not with any reasons. After almost 350 years colonizing Indonesia, the Netherlands is the only country in Europe that has closest historical ties with Indonesia. I guess it is easier for Indonesia to fly to the Netherlands rather than to other European countries.

The first flight was carrying approximately 220 passengers including the Ambassador of the European Union, the Ambassador of the Netherlands, Minister for State Enterprises, and also the CEO of Garuda. The aircraft landed safely in Schiphol airport and welcomed by many both from the Dutch authorities and also representatives of Indonesian government.

The ban has actually given a good lesson to the airline industry in Indonesia. Government becomes stricter to airlines that do not meet safety standards are closed and the license is withdrawn (e.g. Adam Air). Garuda becomes more efficient and profitable. The airline industry becomes more and more attractive to many new comers and Indonesian air is safer (despite some accidents, minor accidents).

Anyway, welcome back to Europe. Hopefully someday I will fly Garuda to Europe (as long as the price is good). Maybe I would like to withdraw my comments on the earlier edition of this blog.

Yahoo! Pipes

2010-06-02T08:28:00.000+07:00

My project is currently developing a website. This website is intended to be semi static one since we are not going to update it each and every single day. Our optimistic update frequency will be once every month although if things happen we can also update it in between. However it feels not too good to have a "static" website. Therefore we are thinking of how to make quite frequent updates but not making us busy updating. RSS feed is the key. We might include news from the sector (especially electricity sector) to be included in the website. The next question is then how to filter the RSS feeds that match to our criteria?

There are many options but for now I am trying Yahoo! service which is called Yahoo! Pipes.

Using Yahoo! Pipes one has to have a yahoo account and creating a pipe is very simple. Those that are familiar with Visio software will easily adapt. It's a drag drop connect method. It is very easy. I only use very simple module (fetch feed and filter). Fetch feed module can have many RSS feed sources. The filter module is a bit more complex since one have to define the filter and play around with permit or block choices. If you have things in "permit" category then you can only use one module to use as "permit module". If you have things in "block" category then you can create another module the acts as "block module". Combining both permit and block module you can have selected feeds for you.

On the side menu, I tried to filter RSS feeds from The Jakarta Post that concern only for Indonesia. Any news from abroad will not be passed. The one thing that I still need to play around is the automatic updating. I hope the pipes can automatically updated.

Try it your self, its fun.

Basic Hydro Power - Part 3

2010-06-01T13:02:00.000+07:00

Suddenly you have to measure the head of a water stream. What kind of method would you use? Before answering such question, let's go back a little bit and review the map. With a quite detailed map someone can determine which position is best for the intake and power house and other components of the plant The planner has to draw a sketch and put the rough layout of the power plant on the map. The map should be quite detail (1:25000 scale might do). From the map, one can make an approximation of the head. Measuring in the field will verify the approximation.

There are some methods to measure head. Simple one is using barometer. two different level of soil will have different level or air pressure. Barometer can do quite good job if the head difference is significantly high. A 20 meters head, you will not use barometer. A transparent hose pipe with water pressure gauge will also do the job. As long as there is no bubble in the pipe, this method will do quite good. The limitation is the pressure gauge. Usually 1 atmospheric pressure (ATM) corresponds to roughly 10 meters of height difference. This method will do good if there is no extreme terrain (e.g. almost vertical cliff).

There are other methods for example the clinometer method. This needs small trigonometric calculation to find the head difference. There is also theodolite method which also needs calculation. GPS method that gives you rough estimation of the head. There are many gadgets that makes people easier to work. There is a new tool from Nikon that can calculate the head difference for you. Head measurement can be done from a distance.

Both head and flow are two most important thing to measure in sizing a hydro power plant. Measuring head is much less troublesome than measuring the flow, however wrong measurement will create design mistakes. Be sure that you measure the head carefully and according to the plan.

Fuel Subsidy - Vol II

2010-06-01T12:17:00.000+07:00

Just after big discussion about subsidized fuel consumption, the price of non-subsidized fuel is going down. The price of non subsidized fuel is in the range of IDR 6400 to IDR 7400 per liter. The price is attached to international crude oil price, therefore there is always a chance that the non-subsidized fuel price to be higher or lower. If the crude oil price goes down extremely, the price of non subsidized fuel might also be very close to the price of subsidized fuel (i.e. IDR 4500 per liter).

In this case why don't the government also attached the subsidized fuel price with the international crude oil price?

The idea is that the government sets the fixed amount of subsidy per liter fuel (say IDR 1000 per liter), then when the crude oil price is going up, the subsidized fuel price also goes up and the other way around when the crude oil price goes down. Precondition for this kind of subsidy mechanism is the transparent production cost of subsidized fuel. Pertamina as, currently, the only company producing and distributing subsidized fuel, must be clear and transparent with their production cost components (whether they can do it or not (or willing), is another matter). Clear cost components will give clear basic information for the government to calculate the subsidy.

The subsidy per liter fuel can also be different from area to area. For example, to boost the development in certain area (say Papua), the subsidy in that area is higher than Java (which normally is more developed than Papua). With this kind of scheme, I guess, there will be more development equality. Current subsidy scheme puts the government into a difficult position because subsidy creates heavy burden on the budget.

Anyway, I am always a fan of subsidy reduction. Such thing will push people to be more efficient, more productive and more rational in using energy. There might be a shock on the economy, but if the government plans and implement the strategy wisely and cleverly, the shock will be absorbed and the economy will be back to normal.

Let's see what the government will do about this.

Fuel Subsidy - Quo Vadis?

2010-05-31T15:54:00.004+07:00

Recently there is a big discussion on the internet about the plan from the government to reduce the consumption of subsidized fuel (especially gasoline). There are some proposals to reduce the consumptions: ban the motor bikes from buying subsidized gasoline; limit the purchase per motorized vehicle per man per day; smart card to limit the purchase; and ban the cars from consuming the subsidized fuel. There is a big discussion about the proposed strategies especially the one that plans to ban motor bikes from buying subsidized fuel.

the motorists are against that particular strategy and their opinion is backed up by motor cycle industry. Their arguments mainly are: motor bike consumption is far less that car, therefore it is the car that should be banned from using subsidized fuel; motor bike users are mainly of lower income therefore using non subsidized fuel would certainly eat bigger part of their income. Final decision is not yet taken since any decision will certainly effect the national economy.

Banning the cars from using subsidized fuel might create sudden increase of inflation. Prices might be rapidly increasing and put more pressure to the people. This is because currently transportation is still subsidized. Trucks and buses are consuming subsidized diesel fuel while inner city public transport are also using subsidized gasoline or diesel fuel. In general, putting the strategy into operation would create high pressure especially for poor people. Banning certain cars (private ones) might be possible, but there will be ways to by pass this kind of strategy.

Limiting the purchase of subsidized fuel for private motor bikes or cars needs strong hand and eyes. this strategy needs a smart system that can not be broken unless there is legal consequence. This means this system needs strong enforcement. Smart system can be bought easily but enforcement is a thing that I have a doubt since the government has long track record of bad enforcement (law or regulations). Smart card is part of this strategy. The implementation of this technology will surely be very expensive.

All possible strategies have their own strengths and weaknesses. What government needs is a study that shows effects of fuel subsidy to other sectors and to macro economy and also shows the real beneficiaries of the subsidy. Knowing the study result, government should know which strategy gives the least negative impact on macro economy and the economy of most of people and also bring improvement on government budget. The most important thing is that the government has to be very consistent with the policy and not letting politics to influence it.

Basic Hydro Power - part 2

2010-05-26T10:58:00.005+07:00

We already know that flow of water and the height of water fall (or height difference of water flowing from point A to point B or to be short "head") are the important things one needs to know correctly before deciding to go for hydro power or not. Measuring those two parameters needs special skill. Special skill means one has to understand how to use the method and its weaknesses. Let's discuss about measuring flow of water. There are many ways or methods of flow measurement: current meter method, float method, tracer method (salt dilution/water conductivity for example), sharp crested weir method, gauging station method etc.

The choice of methods depends on the stage of hydro power development. In the early stage one can use simple and easy method such as current meter, float or tracer. Those methods can provide on site direct flow data. The data will only represent that current condition and not representing all year round condition. However using those simple methods at the right time of the year, one might get the safest flow data assumption. For example someone is measuring flow of a river in a dry year in dry season. At that time of the year the flow is assumed to be the least (maybe even the base flow of the river) so it is quite safe to design a hydro power plant based on that flow measurement since the power plant might be able to operate all year round.

From this point, we then understand one other simple thing that is necessary to know before measuring flow. One has to know the records of rainfall in the area so he/she can determine whether the year of flow measurement is dry year or wet and also can determine which time of the year to measure the flow. Beside those purposes, rainfall data can be used to simulate flow based on mathematical equations (combined with map). Other methods are very useful for the design of the power plant. Sharp crested weir and also gauging station will need all year long measurement efforts. Everyday one has to record certain parameter that relates positively with flow of water (i.e. height of water surface).

Combining flow simulation (based on rainfall data and map) and year long flow recording (weir or gauging station), one can have a more realistic understanding of the stream flow. One can then produce what is called "flow duration curve". A curve that shows duration of certain flow in a year. for example the base flow of a stream will have a 100% duration in a year. It means the base flow will be available all year round. Flood flow might only available for 5% of a year (or any percentage). Based on this flow duration curve one can decide whether the power plant will operate on base flow or certain higher flow. If it goes to higher flow then, the optimal operation of power plant will be less than 100% (i.e. a turbine is usually works at best efficiency at certain designed flow). The rest of the year it will operate at lower efficiency level.

For more information about how to measure flow, you can visit my docstoc profile and check the Good & Bad of Mini Hydro Power vol. 1.

Basic Hydro Power - part 1

2010-05-24T14:25:00.003+07:00

Well I guess many has already understand better that I do about hydro power, however there are still people who simplify the complexity of hydro power even the micro one. Questions like: if I have 500 liters per second, how much kW would I get, still comes to experts. This kind a thing needs an education and complex explanation of things would not help at all. So, I will try to give very basic understanding of how modern hydro power (micro size maybe to be specific) works. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Hydro power is basically power generation by utilizing water power (in this case in general the potential energy of falling water). Therefore the original use of hydro power is to give movement. Water drops move a water wheel that eventually makes certain mechanism to rotate or move and provide specific service. In the old days many mills are using hydro power directly to give movement to their mill facilities. Old hydro power systems use the weight of the water to move the wheel. So the first important point is weight of the water or mass of the water. The second important point is the gravity acceleration. Force is created if there is an acceleration to a mass. Since water always runs to lower level then gravity acceleration works on water mass. Even when flowing slowly the water already produce force (That's why flood flow is very destructive because not just gravity acceleration that works on the flowing water and makes it flowing very fast). And to produce power, water has to drop or fall from certain height. The higher the height the more the power. So we can already see that usually in hydro power, the higher the water falls, the more power it may produce (potential energy).

There is another important aspect, the weight of the water. Weight of water depends on specific mass characteristic of the water (i.e. kg/m3 unit) and volume of the water. As you already know force depends on the mass (or let's say weight). The heavier the water the more force it produces. Heavier water means more volume of water (let's say in certain time unit e.g. second). So 100 liters of water dropped from 1 meter height will produce less force compared to 200 liters of water dropped from the same height (provided that the specific mass or specific gravity of water is the same and gravity acceleration is the same). Therefore the more volume of water flowing per unit of time the better it is.

So, if someone talks about hydro power potential he or she should clearly mention how much is the flow (meter cubic per second or liters per second) and how high the water will drop (meters). The volume per second is called flow, the height of the drop is called head. So find you head and then your flow. That's for the beginning. Head and flow is the key for hydro power

Ban Plastic Bag - Now or Later?

2010-05-24T12:35:00.006+07:00

In some cities around the world there are already movements to ban the use of plastic bags especially those that are not biodegradable. San Francisco claimed that it is the first city to ban non-bio plastic bag and replace the them with bio degradable plastic bags or recyclable paper bags. The ban of plastic bags in general will give positive impact to the environment. plastic material is based on oil which is non renewable resource. the manufacturing of plastic will certainly deplete the oil reserve although might not be as fast as car burning it. Normal plastic will not bio degrade and they just photo degrade. It means plastic will not rot. Normal plastic will turn into small pieces tiny enough to contaminate water and soil. If taken into the body, the plastic particles will contaminate the body and do harm to our health. Burning normal plastic will also not solve the problem. Burning plastic will emit toxic gases that eventually pollute the air and harm people.

In Indonesia, the plastic bag culture is very very dominant. Every time someone goes to market (either traditional or modern market), he or she will bring plastic bags home. The stuff is already packed in plastic container then to bring them home people use plastic bags. Even those bringing their own grocery bag still prefer plastic bags to contain and separate stuffs before putting their groceries into the grocery bag. Paper bag is not yet common in Indonesia. Maybe paper bag is still considered as expensive. Banning plastic bags in Indonesia is surely very challenging since people, most of people, does not have any other alternatives to wrap and to contain stuffs. There are people who argue that plastic use less energy to produce, emit less pollution to the atmosphere, create less solid waste and also emit less carbon emission than paper. It is true that paper has such characteristic, however to the environment in general paper is slightly better (at least from renewable point of view - paper needs wood that can be replanted). So the idea to ban the use of paper bag is generally not accepted.

Anyway, I actually prefer to use canvas bag/specific grocery bag to do grocery and to wrap stuffs people can use used newspaper or even banana leafs (like what they do some times ago in Indonesia especially in traditional markets). Banning plastic bags in Indonesia might not be a wise solution now when people still do not have any other options. Maybe the government can start banning, but in reality we still do not know. Maybe the fate of the policy is just like other policy (e.g. obligation for vehicle owner to do emission testing that eventually not followed by people). When government can do enforcement well then they can start banning things they do not like.

For further reading one can visit http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/02/16/more-cities-and-stores-banning-plastic-bags/.

Recent Trip to South and West Sulawesi

2010-05-21T13:56:00.004+07:00

It was actually happened in late 2009 (December 2009), therefore this note might be a little late. Anyway, I guess after 6 months the conditions might still the same therefore it might be a useful info for people want to travel there.

Back in December 2009 during this PCNA (Participatory Capacity Needs Assessment) with a friend of mine Axel Biegert von Integration, I went to Makassar and Batang Uru in West Sulawesi province. We had to fly from Jakarta to reach Makassar and drive the whole day to Batang Uru. The road from Makassar to Polewali was under construction at that time. The government tried to pave the road using concrete but the contractor/s do it part by part. Therefore it's like "coitus interuptus", when one just experiencing comfort suddenly it has to stop. Stopping here means good road ends. It happens frequently and it has made the travel not so comfortable. Reaching Polewali took longer then 5 years ago.

During the trip we stopped in Pinrang for lunch at one of the famous sea food restaurants. The food was good but still the road was not. Starting at around 7 from Makassar we reached Pinrang at around 1 p.m. and I guess this was considered as slow. We reached Batang Uru when the day was getting dark and raining. The road from Polewali to Batang Uru was worse because of many holes in the road. Since the Kabupaten (one level lower than provincial government) of Polman (Polewali Mandar) was split into two Kabupatens (Polewali and Mandar), the road maintenance was done poorly. Therefore 5 years ago I can reach Makassar in just 5 hours using speedy public transport even.

On the way back we stayed overnight in Pinrang and again took the liberty to enjoy the seafood there. Back in Makassar we tried to go to Trans Studio but it was too expensive and too little time to enjoy so we just ate at a recommended seafood restaurant there and we ordered some nice stuffs to eat. When you are in Makassar do not forget to buy Minyak Tawon (literally means Bee oil) kind a rub only that really works for even small wound on your skin.

Explore Indonesia, there are many things to explore and exotic ones. Going abroad is fifth or sixth options (when there is enough money..)

ISO 50001 Energy Management

2010-05-21T09:17:00.001+07:00

International community is moving forward on Energy Efficiency. Right now there is already a draft of ISO 50001 which standardize Energy Management. Energy management is an essential component of efforts to increase the efficiency of energy usage. It is an essential part because energy efficiency and conservation needs clear plan, strategies, and target to achieve. Energy, in a production process, is an important part that affects the cost of production therefore managing energy usage wisely and methodically will lead to reduced cost of production and eventually increase the competitiveness of the product and also the company.

Indonesia will certainly adopt the standard. The head of Standardization Agency (BSN) has informed public that they are on the track of adopting the ISO standard. As soon as the international draft is approved and becoming operation ISO, Indonesian government will immediately adopt it.

There are some options of adaptation. First is full adaptation and only translation is needed. The second is slight changes and most of the ISO standard is included. This strategy needs longer time to finish. The last one is creating new national standard with the ISO standard as the reference. This last strategy takes longest time. BSN is likely to choose the fast track strategy, or 100% adopt the ISO. To my opinion, this strategy is the most appropriate one. Indonesia now is badly in a need of Energy Management standard to improve national competitiveness and also energy performance.

Hopefully many companies will in the future voluntarily apply the new ISO or new National Standard to improve their performance and competitiveness. Now there is a big need for energy managers.

Lesson of the day

2010-05-19T16:14:00.003+07:00

a perdurable a day, helps you sleep, work and play

The sentence above is a bit difficult to understand for me. This has proved that I need to learn English more. Anyway, I guess the meaning of the sentence above is when you enjoy the day, you can sleep, work and also play a little bit. However, make the use of the day optimally is the challenge. Optimizing or tuning the system so that it uses energy more efficiently is a challenge. I am on the opinion that optimizing the energy system in Indonesia, especially, faces very big challenges. The challenges are not just technical but also non-technical.

Non technical challenges in optimizing energy systems for example are: regulatory framework and also the mindset of the people. Mindset of the people, especially the policy makers, would certainly affect the resulted policies. Policy makers can easily be affected by interests either personal interests or other interests. If the good for the greater is not in the list of interests then the policy will fail. I guess the failing of Indonesia's system is done more systematic now. People who understand laws and regulations bend and create new laws/regulations so that those laws/regulations can support their short term objective (most probably group interest or personal interest). For example fuel price. Government, especially the president, wants to be reelected and for that he/she did not reduce the subsidy for fuel price, instead keeping the subsidy that makes state financial condition get worse (at least higher debt is the sign).

So, I guess politics should be put far away from energy issues. Although it seems impossible (maybe one big example of this is the raid to Iraq), but let's hope that in the future it certainly will be possible. It's all depending on the young generation now. Let's educate them and create greener generations.

PrePaid Meter

2010-05-19T15:21:00.002+07:00

Approximately 2 months ago I saw prepaid kWh meters are installed at some new houses in a housing estate near my home in Bogor. I was quite surprised that PLN did it since, as far as I know, PLN still in pilot testing phase for those kind of meters. the meters are installed at houses that are still constructed. I guess that was intended to secure the electricity payment by housing estate developer during the construction. The already inhabited houses (new ones) use normal kWh meter (not prepaid). According to the brick layers that are working in those houses, their foreman has to go to the bank to get electricity "credits" that later are charged into the meter by putting in codes. I did not see any external MCB, that usually accompany normal kWh meters. this meter should not be unlimited (by MCB) because basically it will make the power planning difficult for PLN.

searching the internet, I found that since 2005 PLN already started using prepaid kWh meters in Bali. Bali is the first because there are many houses or villas without are empty without any people staying. to avoid bad cash flow, off course, this prepaid system is very rational. After Bali, PLN then made the pilot projects in Jakarta and Tangerang area. In 2007 people in the thousand islands are equipped with prepaid kWh meter and starting 2009 the "land" customers have the chance to use this prepaid system also. According to the sources in the Internet there are now approximately 27.000 customers of PLN using prepaid system. PLN now limits the prepaid connection up to only 5.500 VA. This means the kWh meter system has a limiting device. I guess it can be electronically programmed to exactly trip when the current is reaching certain level.

I found this prepaid system both interesting and practical. It is interesting because it is new and opens many possibilities for privacy, flexible payment, and no penalties for late payment. there is no validity limit on the credits (not like most prepaid GSM systems). One still can use the 2 years old credit. This is great. It is practical because one can and have to manage his electricity consumption wisely. For budget limited families, this can be a useful solution. For example: one family only allocate IDR 50.000 per month for electricity. By adjusting power usage, this target can be achieved. One can buy the credits everywhere such as in banks, ATM, or directly to nearest PLN service points. However the lowest credit one can buy is IDR 100.000, but this can be used more than 1 month if a family uses electricity conservatively.

However there is one thing in my mind that is so far unanswered: the tariff. I guess the tariff still follows the national tariff now. Therefore tariff below and above 60 kWh will be different. What about the connection fee or the subscription fee? Is there any subscription fee? Is there any grace period, after the credit finish, before someone has the chance to recharge the credit? Does it temper proof? Are there any possibilities for someone to hack the system? PLN once said that this meter system will make their work easier since it is not needed to check the stand of the meter. But if rarely checked then there might be people trying to bypass the meter and tap the electricity directly from the connection cables.

The prepaid meter opens many opportunities both positive or negative. Now it’s time to prove the performance of the system and also it’s realibility.