JAKARTA - The Directorate General of New, Renewable Energy, and Energy Conservation (EBTKE) concluded that exposure to toxic H2S gas in the Sorik Marapi Geothermal Power Plant (PLTP) area was caused by the maloperation of PT Sorik Marapi Geothermal Power (SMGP).
This was conveyed by Dadan Kusdiana, Director General of EBTKE, during a joint hearing with Commission VII of Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI). "The results of the investigation show that PT SMGP has performed maloperation in the Sorik Marapi geothermal field and PT SMGP holds the Geothermal Permit," said Mr Kusdiana.
Furthermore, Mr Kusdiana emphasised that SMGP must be responsible for the incident that killed 5 residents who were in the PLTP area. This incident also caused 40 people hospitalised, 3 outpatients, and 1 person receiving special medical treatment.
For information, the incident began when SMGP opened the SMP-T02 well for commissioning of Unit II PLTP Sorik Marapi. However, soon SMGP received reports that a number of residents fainted due to poisonous gas inhalation.
According to idnfinancials.com data, PLTP Sorik Marapi is located in Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra. This power plant has a total capacity of 240 megawatts (MW) and is part of the 35 thousand MW power plant project. (KR/AC)