Indonesia moves forward with 1 GW pumped storage hydropower plant

The World Bank has decided to award a $380 million loan to Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources for the construction of the 1,040 MW Upper Cisokan Pumped Storage Power Plant, a project under development since 1986.

“The facility will have significant power generation capacity to meet peak demand, provide significant storage capacity to enable a larger penetration of renewable energ[y] and, because of its close location to two large demand centers, will alleviate increasing transmission loads on the grid,” the international financial institution said in a statement. “As a result, a more environmentally friendly and reliable supply of electricity will benefit consumers in Java and Bali.”

The $800 million facility is planned to be located 40km west of Bandung in West Java and will occupy an area across two water reservoirs in West Bandung regency and Cianjur regency. According to a document published last year by state-owned utility PT PLN (Persero), which owns the project, the plant will consist of four units with a capacity of 260 MW each and the facility’s total pump capacity will be 1.1 GW and will be provided by an underground power plant. The generation duration is estimated at 6.5 hours per day and the pump duration at maximum input, at 8.5 hours per day.

One of the two dams is located at 75.5m and is already built, on the Cirumamis River while a second dam is planned to be constructed at 98m on the Cisokan River. A tunnel will connect the power station to the reservoir and two transmission lines will link the facility to the Cibinong-
Saguling network, which cannot handle additional load as it has almost reached its capacity limit. “Main construction activities are expected to take 50 months and are planned to be operational between 2024 [and] 2025,” the report reads.