The last few decades have seen Indonesia grow significantly. Between 1980 and 2010, its GDP rose 10 times and by 2017, crossed US$1 trillion. Within those same three decades, national population increased nearly 70%, with a great deal of that expansion taking place in urban centers. 

This rapid development has resulted in a sharp spike in electricity demand, and power consumption increased 16 times between 1980 and 2010. In 2014, the Indonesian government set to increase the country’s generation capacity from 51 GW to 115 GW by 2025. Part of this gargantuan effort is to expand existing power stations across the archipelago, including the Muara Karang GTCC power plant located north of Jakarta. 

In 2016, PLN and its daughter company PJB tapped on Mitsubishi Power to be part of a consortium to undertake full EPC of the third block of the Muara Karang power plant. The project would increase the facility’s power generation capacity by 500 MW.

Bringing its more than 50 years of experience in Indonesia, Mitsubishi Power supplied the main equipment for the expansion: an M701F gas turbine and a steam turbine.  It also provided maintenance support including installation of advanced control systems, remote monitoring and assignment of a full-time on-site service engineer.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic made an already complex project even more challenging with technical advisors from Japan unable to visit the site. Nevertheless, Mitsubishi Power continued to coordinate construction remotely, and against the odds, upgrades were completed, and the third block began commercial operations in October 2021.

The project generated one of the most advanced power generation facilities in Indonesia – in terms of efficiency, environmental performance and generation cost. 

• With 60.7% efficiency and heat rate of 1,415 kCal/kWh upon commissioning, Muara Karang Block-3 is the most efficient power plant in the country.
• It is now the least polluting thermal power plant in Indonesia, with the upgrades lowering net plant heat rate and by extension, carbon emissions.
• Despite utilizing higher priced LNG and dealing with fast-changing loading patterns, Muara Karang Block-3 ranks among the top three gas-fired power plants with lowest generating cost in Indonesia.
• Linking of the plant to a TOMONI HUB remote monitoring center in Japan has enabled faster identification of issues and implementation of countermeasures to avoid unplanned downtime.