20 February 2020 70324
Engineering

 Geothermal Power Plant (PLTP)


Geothermal Power Plant is a power plant that uses geothermal energy as its energy source. Electricity from geothermal power is currently used in 24 countries, while geothermal heating is used in 70 countries. The estimation of potential electricity that geothermal energy can generate range from 35 to 2,000 GW. The current worldwide capacity is 10,715 megawatts (MW), with the largest capacity in the United States at 3,086 MW, followed by the Philippines and Indonesia. India has already announced plans to develop its first geothermal power plant in Chhattisgarh.
Geothermal power is considered a renewable energy source because its heat extraction is much smaller than that of the geothermal load. Geothermal power plants' current carbon dioxide emissions are approximately 122 kg CO per megawatt-hour (MW·h) of electricity, roughly one-eighth of coal fired power plant emissions.

Indonesia is blessed with abundant geothermal resources because of the many volcanoes in Indonesia. Of all the large islands, Kalimantan is the only island that does not have geothermal potential.

To generate electricity with geothermal energy is done by drilling the ground in areas that have geothermal potential to create hot gas holes which will be used to heat the boiler so that the steam can drive the steam turbine connected to the generator. For geothermal with high pressure, it is possible to immediately turn the generator turbine after the steam coming out is cleaned first.
 
 

Advantages

Clean energy resource

Constant geothermal energy throughout the seasons

Requires minimal land and water (compared to other alternative energies)

Weakness

High capital costs 

It can only be built near tectonic plates

Table 1. Advantages and Weaknesses of PLTP 
 
In its operation, PLTP generally runs the following processes:

Figure 1. Process of generating electricity at PLTP

In general, PLTP has the same basic components as Steam Power Plant (PLTU). However, because it uses geothermal steam, the PLTP must prepare additional components to use this steam to heat the water vapor that flows into the turbine.

  
 

Author

Maesha Gusti Rianta ST., M.Sc

Email: maesha@indonesiare.co.id