ISBN : 978-1-4799-6127-6

Bali, 5 - 7 November 2014

ICSGTEIS 2014

Microhydro Powerplant for Rural Area in Bali

to Generate Green and Sustainable Electricity
Kumara, D.P.D. Suparyawan, W.G. Ariastina, W. Sukerayasa, I.A.D. Giriantari
Department of Energy Management - Postgraduate Program Udayana University
Jl. PB Sudirman Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Email: satya.kumara@ee.unud.ac.id
Abstract Microhydro is one among various renewable
technologies that can be developed to generate clean and
sustainable electricity in Bali. As a result, the local utility
company has planned to develop several mini-hydro in Bali for
the next five years with total capacity of 30 megawatt. Two micro
hydro plants each of 25 kW and 20 kW capacity are currently in
operation to generate electricity for villagers as well as injecting
power into local grid. Many villages in Bali pose great potential
to generate electricity using micro hydro from streams or rivers
nearby the village which forms their irrigation systems. The
report presented on this paper is result of study to develop micro
hydro in the village of Sambangan in District of Buleleng. The
power plant is intended to improve existing generic plant to
provide more reliable and better quality electrical power for
villagers which has no access to utility grid. The village has
irrigation canal with historical water flow of 623 liter per second
minimum and with an effective head of around 18 meter.
Summary of technical specification of the proposed 82 kW micro
hydro is presented. The total cost for developing this plant is
estimated at around 1.5 billion Rupiah that includes civil,
mechanical and electrical, as well as distribution network cost
components. The cost of each work component is estimated based
on empirical data on previously built or design micro hydro
around Indonesia. An organization that empower
local
manpower is also identified to operate and maintain the power
plant effectively and sustainably.
Keywords renewable generation, microhydro, technical
specification, investment, management

I.

INTRODUCTION

Indonesia has huge potential of hydro electric power

generation. Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources
(MEMR) estimates that national potential of hydro-electric is
around 75,600 MW power [1]. Progress to date on hydropower
total capacity is around 6,848 MW or less than 10% of its
potential hence most of this clean and green source of energy is
under developed. Indonesian energy blueprint states that
hydropower is part of national renewable generation portfolio
which by 2025 shall contribute to 5% of national energy mix
together with other renewable resources [2]. The abundant
potential of hydropower in Indonesia is due to the fact that
lakes, rivers and waterfalls are found in many parts of the
Indonesian archipelago including the island of Bali. According
to Bali water resources agency, Bali has 154 rivers and springs
scattered around the island [3]. Currently, the island has two

978-1-4799-6127-6/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

micro hydro plants which are in operation; A 25 kW gridconnected plant is in Karangasem on the east of Bali. Another
20 kW plant is serving villagers in Buleleng in the north of
Bali. Further, local electric distribution company has planned
to build several minihydro plants in the next few years
producing total capacity of 30 MW [4].
Bali is popular as world tourist destination where nearly
eight million people both local and foreign visit the island
every year to see nature, culture, and the life of people in Bali.
Although nearly all parts of the island has been served by
electric power networks but some villages still face basic
challenge of having electric power their home. Typical
characteristics of these villages are that they are located in
remote areas, high on the mountain areas or deep on the
valleys. More over, their houses are scaterred in large areas and
road access is limited and often non existence. The villagers are
also characterized by their low economic income. Village
Sambangan in District of Buleleng is an example of these
remote villages around Bali. The village is passed by Tiying
Tali river from which water is sourced for farm irrigation. The
nearest utility distribution network is around three or four
kilometers away but expanding the network to reach out for
these villages will require the utility to invest large sum of
money. But, due to economic and geographical characteristics
of these villages, the utility tends not to view this as source of
companys revenue and hence very often rely on central
government fund to develop such projects.
This paper presents result of study to develop micro hydro
plant at village of Sambangan, one of many typical villages in
Bali where part of its population still has no have access to
electricity. The study covers technical assessment of the hydro
power of the Tiying Tali river which passes nearby the village.
It also followed by analysis on costs involved such as civil,
mechanical, and electrical works. The study also identifies
local manpower to operate and maintain the power plant so it
can be utilized effectively and sustainably.

II. METHODOLOGY
The objective of research reported here is to find potential
of electric power that can be generated from Tiying Tali river
using micro hydro technology. Site observation was conducted
to asses overall condition of the site. Flow rate of the river is
assessed using historical record available from Department of

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Public Works. Head of the water is estimated using satellite

image which also contains locations contour data available
from Google Earth. These two information are used to
estimate the electric power that can be harnessed from the
river. A standard formula to calculate the potential power is
adopted.
The research also estimated total investment necessary to
construct this micro hydro plant and followed by investment
analysis using net-present-value tool. Typical works involved
in constructing micro hydro plant is civil works, mechanical
and electrical works, and construction of distribution network
to deliver power to villagers. The costing of all work
components is done using secondary data available from past
micro hydro projects or existing plant and uses interpolation to
estimate costs of the proposed plant based on size or
dimension.
Organization or committee to manage the proposed plant
is illustrated as an effort to achieve sustainable operation of
the plant. The committee consists of personnel with job
descriptions which enable them to provide good and reliable
service to consumers. More over, to apply for grid-connected
configuration for selling energy into the grid, the power plant
should be owned by community organization such as co-op.
III. DESIGN AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
Village of Sambangan is located in the north of Bali with
total population of 4,805 people or around 1,168 households.
Most of the household already have electricity supplied by the
utility but around 162 households still unconnected. These
households are located far from the utilitys distribution
network and their houses are scattered in large areas.
Tiying Tali river passes near the village which serves as
irrigation channel for the rice field farms around the village.
Based on historical flow rate record, it is found that annual
minimum flow rate is 836 liter per second. However, a
conservative figure of 80% of this data is used to estimate
effective flow rate on sizing the plant. Hence, flow rate of 623
liter per second is used so that in the even of minimum water,
the plant can still deliver its design capacity.

Fig. 1 Microhydro of 82 kW in Sambangan village

Head of water is the second factor that determines potential

of an hydro power plant. Tiying Tali river is located in a
relatively difficult terrain hence measurement of the head using
standard technique pose great challenges. Satellite image
available from Google Earth was used to estimate the head. In
addition to image, information on surface level is also available
on the map. Using this method, it is found that head of the river
is around 18 meter. The size of head together with the flow rate
are then used to estimate potential of generated electric power
using the standard power conversion below, that gives power
output capacity of around 82 kilowatt. General lay out and
photo of the microhydro site is shown in Figure 1.

P = 9.8 x h x Q
where P is electric power generated in watt, h or head is the
effective height of water level or waterfall, and Q is the volume
of water per unit time.
The water is channeled through an intake gate and into
canal race with U-shaped cross section to reduce water friction.
The cross section area of the canal race is approximately one
square meter. The figure is estimated using linear interpolation
from existing canal race designs on several micro hydro around
Indonesia. To ensure smooth and continuous supply of water
into penstock, the water is stored in the for eBay. The size of
the bay is also estimated using similar approach as in sizing the
canal race which yields bay volume of 15 cubic meters.
Mechanical works consist of penstock design and turbine
selection. Turbine converts potential energy of the waterfall
into rotational kinetic energy. The proposed penstock is of poly
vinyl chloride (PVC) material with 20 inch diameter and 74
meter length. A cross flow turbine made by Entech of T-15
type is proposed as it has around 80% efficiency and quite
common for micro hydro application in Indonesia [5].
Electrical works consists of generator selection and
electrical wiring at the power house. Consideration for
selecting generator are the operating voltage and frequency,
phase number, of brushless design, and complete with
automatic voltage regulator. With these as criteria, three phase
generator of Marelli MJB 225 LA of 134 kVA, 220/380 V 50
Hz is proposed. Electrical wiring for the power house is a
standard wiring installation to comply with Indonesian wiring
regulation or PUIL but with addition of electronic load control
and 160 kVA ballast load to protect generator in the even of
sudden load change.
Distribution networks is necessary to deliver power to
houses located at various distances from the power house.
Figure 2 shows the proposed routing of the distribution
networks. The feeder uses low voltage twisted cable NFA2X-T
similar with cable used by the utility. The house connetion uses
NFA2X cable. Each house will be supplied with 450 VA
power ceiling as commonly implemented by utility for
customer in remote areas. The total number of consumer is
113. Distribution network is designed to meet utility
requirements in terms of voltage drop at consumers point in
which voltage shall not fluctuate within +- 10% of nominal
voltage of 220 V 50 Hz. The location of pole to support the
overhead cable also adopts standard used by utility where

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distance between nearest pole is 50 meter [6]. Total distance of

the feeder is arround 3,000 meter and total distance for house
connection is 6,000 meter. Each customer wiring installation is
provided with circuit breaker to prevent nuisance to the power
house and also protection for the consumers side.

used which yield total cost of distribution network at around

IDR 69.4 million.
Total cost for constructing Sambangan micro hydro is the
sum of all cost components as described above which equal to
IDR 1.545 billion. Therefore, it yields an initial investment cost
of around IDR 19 million or around USD 1,570 per kilowatt
power based on current exchange rate. This figure is within the
average cost of electricity generation using micro hydro as
reported in [13].
The village daily load curve was obtained by conducting
survey on people in the village. The questionnaire includes
question such as equipment in their house, time when
electricity is mainly used, duration of usage, activities during
evening and daytime, etc. Based on this survey, load curve is
approximated and the result in graphical form is shown in
Figure 3. It is clear that villager only use electricity at night for
lighting and no consumption during day time. At day time,
from 9 in the morning up to 17 in the evening most of the
villagers are in the field as they are all farmer.
The estimated load pattern is used to calculate daily energy
consumption which yield total energy use for the village is at
118.27 kWh every day. Annual energy usage is then obtained
by assuming constant daily energy usage and multiplied by 365
days which yield annual energy usage of 43,169 kWh.

Fig 2. Proposed distribution network

IV. COST COMPONENTS AND INVESTMENT ANALYSIS

Civil works for micro hydro project covers several works
such as site preparation, construction of intake, canal race,
penstock, foundation of power house, and building for power
house. There is no standard cost for each of this work
component as the nature of this construction is very site or
location specific. Each location will require its own cost due to
its topology, geographical and access. Several micro hydro
projects have been developed in various location in Indonesia.
This empirical or historical data is used to estimate cost
elements of the proposed power plant. Data on size of building
and other components of existing micro hydro are used to
interpolate the civil works cost of the proposed plant. With this
approach and based on data described in [7] yields total cost for
civil works of the proposed plant is around IDR 407.5 million.
Mechanical and electrical costs include procurement and
installation of turbine, selection of electric generator and its
electronic load control, and alls constructing distribution
network to deliver power to customer. Similar approach as in
the civils work cost estimation as described above is adopted.
And based on data described in [8], it yields cost estimate for
mechanical and electrical works of the proposed plant at
around IDR 566.4 million.
Distribution network work covers material such as
concrete pole, overhead cable for feeder and house termination,
and protection equipments and including cost for installation of
these components. Using secondary data as described in [9],
[10], [11] total cost for construction of distribution network is
estimated at IDR 473.8 million. To obtain the cost of house
connection to feeder, secondary data as described in [12] is

Fig 3. Load curve of the village

Investment analysis using net present value (NPV) is used
to asses financial feasibility of the proposed plant. Cost factors
that affect NPV result are total initial investment, operation and
maintenance, annual sale of energy, interest rate, and life time
of the plant. The standard formula for NPV analysis is shown
below.

Where NCFo is the initial investment of the project and NCFt is

net cash flow generated by the project at time t. The life time of
the plant is denoted as n and k is the required rate of return. An

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investment is considered feasible if it has positive NPV value.

The annual operation and maintenance cost is taken as 5% of
the total investment. Annual interest rate is assumed at 13%
and plants life time is at 30 years. All this data is then used to
calculate annual sale of energy to make this investment as an
NPV feasible. To balance the two terms of the NPV equation
requires annual energy sales of IDR 275,168,900. Therefore to
generate positive NPV value, energy sale should be greater than
this figure.
The cost of per unit energy is calculated using the minimum
energy sale and annual energy consumption which previously
found at 43,169 kWh which produce per unit energy of IDR
6,375 per kWh. This per unit cost is much higher than the
current utility price at around IDR 415 to 1,352 per kWh
depending on consumer group [14]. This price is not the cost
that reflect true production cost of electricity as it is highly
subsidized by the government. Nevertheless, high price of the
proposed micro hydro is largely due to low level of energy
consumption. At the current load profile based on the number
of customer and type of load which only lighting, it represents
only 6% of its full capacity.
Report based on the study of existing micro hydro in other
part of Indonesia as described in [15] states that average
capacity factor of an off-grid plant is 25% and the gridconnected system is at 93%. Scenarios are presented to see
how the proposed plant will perform should its capacity factor
is assumed at 25% and 93% respectively. When the plant
operates at 25% capacity it would generates annual energy of
180,499 kWh therefore energy cost is at IDR 1,525 per kWh.
If it is assumed the plant operates at 93% capacity then the
annual energy production is at 671,459 kWh which yield
energy cost of IDR 410 per kWh.
In view of locations characteristics, increasing energy sale
can be achieved by several options; first is to connect more
villagers to join the organization to become customer, second is
to encourage diversification of economic activities by
identifying potential of local products or services for value
added economy, and third is to sell energy to the utility as this
is currently possible according to government regulation [16]
[17], [18] and [19]. However, some criteria need to be met
before permit is issued by the authority that the power can be
sold to the grid. For example, according to the ministerial
regulation, only organization such as co-op that can sell energy
to the grid. Therefore, this community owned power plant need
to be legalized by registering it to the relevant government
agency.
The sustainable operation of micro hydro plant depends not
only on reliability of the plant but also on the availability of
organization and manpower in the village that can operate and
maintain the system. The absent of local technical persons have
contributed to the ineffective operation or lack of sustainability
of many renewable energy pilot project plants in Indonesia.
Similar findings to highlight the importance of organization or
committee were also presented on the micro hydro project in
Borneo as described in [20]. An organization that consists of
head of operation that work under the supervision of village
consumer council and assisted by an administrative staff and
one technical staff is proposed. The administrative staff will

handle the administration of the business and payment while

the technical staff will responsible for the operation and
maintenance of the plant. Fig. 4 shows organization of the
human resource.

Fig. 4 Organization to run the proposed micro hydro

The council of farmers serves to protect villagers by setting
electricity price, receiving complaints from villagers, making
sure the head and its team will conduct good administration.
The head is responsible for the management of the plant that
covers operation, energy sales, as well as maintaining external
relations. The administration and technical staffs are
responsible for day to day running of the organization in terms
of sales administration and technical tasks respectively. Using
dedicated personnel will ensure administration will be run
properly and technical issues can be handled.
V. CONCLUSION
Technical assessment to develop micro hydro power plant
at Sambangan village has been presented. Tiying Tali river is
potential to generate electricity of 82 kW capacity to provide
green and sustainable energy for local villagers.
Total investments required to develop this micro hydro is
IDR 1.5 billion to cover all works such as civil, mechanical,
and electrical cost components including construction of
distribution networks both procurement and installations. At
current loading pattern, the plant is only utilize at 6% of its
capacity yielding energy cost of IDR 6,375 per kWh. Two
operating scenarios is proposed on which the power plant is
assumed operating at two loading conditions. At 25% and 93%
loading condition, the energy cost drop to IDR 1,525 and IDR
410 per kWh respectively.
For the power plant to satisfy NPV feasible investment
criteria, it is necessary to have sufficient energy consumption.
Increasing energy consumption can be achieved by increasing
the number of customer by inviting more local villager to join
the co-op, so more customer means more power usage. Energy
consumption can also be increased by encouraging villager to
develop new economic productive activities. The other option
is to connect output of the plant to utility grid to export the
excess energy. For this purpose, an organization in the form of
co-op is proposed to operate and maintain the power plant to
meet requirements set by the government.

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