DC Interconnection between Java and Sumatera, in Indonesia

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world to form a single state. It consists of more than 17,000 islands with the five biggest islands are Java, Sumatera, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua. About 40% of the population lives in Java and it consumes 75% of power generated by PLN, the only state-owned electricity company. It has been studied that Java needs about 7,000 MW additional generation within the next 4 years. Sumatera is the closest island to Java and it has plenty of coal reserves. Therefore, one of the options to fulfill the high demand of additional power in Java is by constructing power plants closed to the coal mines in (South) Sumatera and transferring the power to Java. In this paper, a comparison between DC and AC interconnection for the Sumatera-Java power transfer is studied. The study indicates that HVDC interconnection between Java and Sumatera is more feasible to be implemented. Furthermore, some obstacles are highlighted and further actions are proposed in order to implement the DC interconnection on the right schedule