Black Start Power Plant Project on OBI Island, Indonesia by Pauway Energy

As an important landmark project for Pauway Energy to deepen its presence in the Southeast Asian energy market, this project focuses on the core power guarantee needs of the industrial park on OBI Island, Indonesia. With black start technology at its core, it provides safe, stable and efficient emergency and supporting power supply services for the industrial development of the park, and is also an important practice of China-Indonesia cooperation in new energy and industrial supporting facilities.

Project Background & Contract Award

OBI Island (Obi Island) in Indonesia is located in South Halmahera Regency, North Maluku Province. It is an important gathering place for industrial parks in the region, with large-scale heavy industry projects such as nickel-cobalt refining built on the island. Such industries have extremely high requirements for the stability and continuity of power supply, and need to have emergency power supply and power grid recovery capabilities to prevent production interruptions. Due to the special geographical location of OBI Island, the power grid infrastructure is relatively weak, and sudden power outages are prone to occur. The black start power plant has become a key supporting facility to ensure the normal operation of the park. Beijing Pauway Energy Co., Ltd. (with its wholly-owned subsidiary Tianjin Pauway Power Co., Ltd. responsible for specific implementation) successfully undertook the project by virtue of its mature black start technical solutions, rich experience in overseas power plant projects and complete equipment supporting capabilities, providing exclusive power guarantee solutions for the core industries of the park.

Core Technology & Equipment Configuration

Generating Units & Core Technology

Relying on Pauway Energy’s mature generating unit integration capabilities, it adopts special units adapted to tropical marine climate (equipped with core components of internationally renowned brand engines), focusing on the core function of black start. It has the core capabilities of rapid start-up, independent networking and driving power grid recovery under full power grid blackout conditions, which can respond quickly in case of sudden power outages and minimize the power outage losses of park industries. At the same time, it is compatible with the photovoltaic-storage-diesel microgrid coordinated operation mode, and can be linked with the photovoltaic and energy storage systems on the island to achieve efficient energy complementarity.

Project Positioning

An exclusive industrial supporting black start power plant, with three core functions of emergency power supply, power grid peak shaving and black start recovery. It adopts an intelligent control system, which can realize remote monitoring, real-time monitoring of unit status, fault early warning and one-key start-stop, adapting to the high-load and high-reliability power supply needs of the OBI Island Industrial Park. At the same time, aiming at the marine salt spray environment on the island, the equipment is subjected to fully enclosed anti-corrosion and special heat dissipation treatment to ensure long-term stable operation.

Delivery & Operation Schedule

The project strictly complies with local Indonesian engineering standards and environmental protection requirements, and efficiently promotes the entire process of equipment production, marine transportation, on-site installation and commissioning. The equipment adopts a containerized modular design, which is suitable for the transportation and installation conditions of the island, greatly shortening the on-site construction period. At present, the project has completed all equipment delivery, installation and commissioning, successfully connected to the grid and put into commercial operation, and continues to provide stable power support for industries such as nickel-cobalt refining in the OBI Island Industrial Park.

Project Significance & Challenges

Industry & Cooperation Value

It has filled the gap in Pauway Energy’s project practice in the field of black start power plants in Southeast Asia, further expanded the influence of China’s high-end power generation equipment and complete sets of solutions in the Indonesian market, and become an important demonstration project for China-Indonesia industrial supporting and energy cooperation. At the same time, it has provided solid power guarantee for the industrial upgrading of the OBI Island Industrial Park in Indonesia, helping the local area develop high-value-added industries relying on its nickel-cobalt resource advantages, and driving regional economic development and employment increase.

Geopolitical & Market Value

It has deepened energy cooperation between China and Indonesia. Relying on the OBI Island project, it has accumulated experience in power plant design, construction and operation and maintenance under special island environments (salt spray, high temperature, inconvenient logistics), providing valuable reference for subsequent Chinese enterprises to participate in power infrastructure construction and industrial supporting power supply projects on Indonesian and Southeast Asian islands.

Execution Challenges

It has overcome the logistics and transportation difficulties caused by the island geographical location of OBI Island, and solved the technical pain points such as equipment anti-corrosion, heat dissipation and moisture-proof under tropical high temperature and high salt spray environment. It has adapted to the characteristics of local industrial power load fluctuations, optimized unit operation parameters, and ensured black start response speed and power supply stability. At the same time, it has coordinated local policies, environmental protection requirements and construction standards, efficiently promoted the project landing, and balanced power supply reliability and ecological and environmental protection needs.