A solution to utilizing renewable energy for people benefit

Solar Water Treatment in Nusa Penida

In 2007, PT. Energy Management Indonesia in cooperation with Directorate Electricity and Energy Utilization, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources,

Republic of Indonesia has installed two units of Solar – Reverse Osmosis for

Water Treatment in Banjar Angkal and Banjar Semaya, Nusa Penida Island.

Until now, the units are still running and giving benefit to both villages.

PT Energy Management Indonesia (Persero) Jl. Wolter Monginsidi no 6, Jakarta, Indonesia

+62 21 7268881 +62 21 7268880

Solar Water Treatment in Nusa Penida

A solution to utilizing renewable energy for people benefit

By Noezran Azwar

PT. Energy Management Indonesia (Persero)

In 2007, PT. Energy Management Indonesia in cooperation with Directorate Electricity and

Energy Utilization, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Republic of Indonesia has

installed two units of Solar – Reverse Osmosis for Water Treatment in Banjar Angkal and

Banjar Semaya, Nusa Penida Island. Until now, the units are still running and giving benefit

to both villages.

Foreword

For archipelagos nation like Indonesia, electricity and water supply become a big challenge

nowadays, especially for farther and smaller islands. Unfairly distributed population and

extreme topographic contour in some areas often become causes of high investment for

electricity and water grids development. Decentralized grid is one of the solutions and the

government built small power generators for the islands, and most of them are diesel

generators. Although these facilities built with smaller investment, they run with higher

operation expenses and very dependent with diesel oil supply. The government, several

years ago, introduces the utilization of local renewable energy resources for electricity

generation. And, it is growing along these years. Besides giving more access to the

electricity, renewable energy utilization also unequivocally improves living standards. In

water supply sector, renewable energy technologies widely known has been utilized for

pumping and water treatment purposes in many areas, especially in remote grids.

Nusa Penida lies near Bali Island, but has less fortune compare to the neighbor. The island

has hardly extreme contour from flat

shorelines to rock-hills with cliffs. Most

people are living along shore area. The island

has also long dry season (6 – 9 months).

Electricity mostly comes from diesel

generators and available grid is mostly

located in shore area and isolated from Bali

Island. The communities usually use

rainwater that they had save along rain

season in reservoirs called “cubang” for

drinking and cooking. Other water supply

comes from home wells, but the water is

brackish. When they experience longer dry season, they use this brackish water. The

wealthier ones bought mineral water in gallons for Rp. 18,000 to Rp. 20,000 (nearly 2 USD)

per gallon (19 liter). In 2007, PT. Energy Management Indonesia installed two solar reversed

osmosis units for water treatment in Banjar Angkal and Banjar Semaya, two small villages in

Nusa Penida. Until now, the units are still running and giving benefit to both villages.

Originality The origin of the idea is how to improve drinking water quality and how to make the

solution be sustainable.

As mentioned previously, the communities in Nusa Penida shore line experienced drinking

water supply problem. The problem was hard to solve especially when long dry season.

Available water supply comes from brackish water wells. The salts concentrate measured

about 1500 mg/L which above Ministry of Health Drinking Water Quality Standard, but

could be reduced with available reversed osmosis technology.

The systems installed were consisting of submersible water pump reversed osmosis unit

equipped by filtration and ultraviolet unit. Although there is available electricity grid nearby

the installation sites, the power source

of the water treatment systems comes

from electricity generated by solar

panels. Both systems were designed as

off-grid. The idea comes from the

community poor wealth condition that

they could not be burden by extra

electricity bills.

Both systems were being managed by

local cooperatives. They were selling the water at minimum price and the income was being

used for O&M cost and dividend for the cooperatives.

The project planned through techno-economic and socio-culture approach. In earlier stage

of the project, the works were dominated by gathering much information through literature

study and site survey. The survey mapped what were the needs of communities, what

solutions should be offered, how to build communities awareness and get their

participation, what would be the obstacles, etc. The information collected was analyzed to

refine the work plan. The socialization of the project was the last stage before the

construction and installation begin. The socialization introduced the idea of the project,

offered solution, and yet to invite communities participation in the project works. In this

phase, the communities were persuaded to utilize cooperatives for managing the operation

and maintenance of installed systems. The concept of simple drinking water business was

introduced. The technical training for the operator was also conducted. The construction

and installation of both systems conducted in 2 months.

Environment and Social Consideration

Environment

The impact of a reversed osmosis unit to the environment usually is the brine water as the

byproduct of the process. The government has stated the threshold of salt minerals

concentration as total dissolved solid (TDS) in waste water disposed to the sea is 4000 mg/L

(The State Ministry of Environment, Ministerial Decree no 4/2007).

The water treatment systems were located in communities land nearby the coast (10 – 15m

from shorelines). Raw water came from 7 – 10m depth wells. The salts concentrate

measured in raw water as total dissolved solid (TDS) was about 1200 - 1500 mg/L.

The reversed osmosis technology used

in this project were using low pressure

process, therefore not all the feed water

being permeated through the

membrane (about 10% of feed flow

rate). The produced brine water then

mixed with this bypass water and has

TDS about 1600 to 2000 mg/L which still

below government requirement.

Since the systems were off-grid, there is avoided CO2 emission. Nusa Penida existing grid is

mostly supplied by diesel generators. With this baseline and other technical assumptions,

implementation of solar technology of 4.2 kilowatt peak can avoid minimum 15 – 20 tones

of CO2 annually for each water treatment system.

Socio-culture

Almost all people in Nusa Penida devote

to Bali-Hindu religion and hold it as their

culture. They have two rural

administration in-effects. One is official

administration (government) called

Desa and the other is traditional-culture

system called Banjar. Although Banjar is

only based on Bali-Hindu culture, it has

stronger influence in people daily

activities. And almost all community

decisions mostly were being resolved in

Banjar. However, our project approaches are still considering those two administrations.

The common education level among the productive age is senior high school. Only fewer

people have higher education, the rest are the elders and children with basic education.

There are public medical centers and few doctors available in the area. Most medical cases

were being related to low income and poor living quality such as; poor children nutrition,

malaria, and diarrhea. The rate of these cases would increase when dry season occurred.

These identified conditions were being our consideration when we conduct the socialization

of the project.

By using Banjar leader (called Bendesa), Hindu priest, and leader of Desa (called Lurah), we

started to campaign and socialize the project. This was most the effective way, since people

were looking to their leaders. The

project was introduced as government

funded program and the people in

both Banjar’s would inherit the

installed systems. Some people in the

community were happy; some were

doubtful and worries that the units

would become their burden in the

future. With their urgent needs of

drinking water and sufficient education

level, the project succeeded to

introduce. People awareness was

developed and with their available knowledge, they organized themselves to participate in

process of the project. These were be advantageous for project completion, yet were giving

hopes that the installed systems had chances to sustain in the future.

Technical, Economic, and Market Consideration

Technical

The systems were designed compact, easy to operate, and minimum maintenance. Low

pressure - reversed osmosis technology were being used which had less energy

consumption. Since it used lower osmotic pressure, the yield between produced water and

feed water was also low. But, like previously mentioned, it was an advantage since the

mixture of “unprocessed” water and brine byproduct has lower TDS which fulfill

government requirement of disposed water quality.

Both systems were consisting same components;

1. Well pump; Lorentz PS150 which is a highly efficient submersible pump system.

2. Reversed osmosis feed pump; Pacific Scientific

3. Filters ; strainers, 20 and 5 filters, charcoal filter, PH neutralizer, and UV sterilizer

4. Automatic water flush pump

5. Reversed osmosis machine; 1800

liter/day production capacity, Sea

Recovery’s Ultra Whisper™

Desalinator with its unique

EfficientSea™ Energy Transfer

technology; brings efficient,

compact, extraordinarily quiet

water making to small and midsize

power or sail boats. The unit’s

Energy Transfer Device eliminates

the need for a high-pressure

pump, reducing the electricity

consumption of the R.O. system

by as much as 75%.The R.O.

process is achieved by recovering

energy from the pressurized brine

discharge and transferring that

energy to relatively low-

pressurized feed.

6. Solar panel of 4160 watt peak equipped with Lorentz ETATrack Active 1500 Solar

Tracker, VRLA batteries 2V – 800, and Plasmatronic PL 60 charge controller.

Most equipment was imported, but the spare parts are available in Indonesia. The

closest vendor office is in Bali Island and recently PT. Energy Management Indonesia has

awarded agency right from solar pump manufacturer.

Installation sites were easy to be accessed since nearby village main road which almost

10 minutes from the ferry harbor.

Economic, Market, and Financial

In Banjar Angkal and Banjar Semaya, most people live as traditional seaweed farmer and

fisherman. Since the limited electricity and insufficient facilities for product processing, the

seaweed and fish are brought to Bali Island to be processed for export purposes. To the

contrary, groceries are being brought from Bali Island by using ferry or boat. And as

guessed, all the prices are boosting up almost twice. Mineral water in gallon price is only Rp.

9,000 – Rp. 10,000 in Bali Island, and it’s

boosting up to Rp. 18,000 – Rp. 20,000

in Nusa Penida.

The communities were agreed among

themselves to sell the produced water in

gallons. The production rate is 90 water

gallons per day. They organized local

cooperatives to manage the business.

They were selling the produced water at

price Rp. 4500 per water gallon with

brands Suryaning and Segaria. Half of the revenue was used as operating expenses and

savings for maintenance cost. The other half was deposited to cooperative treasury for

dividend or financing Banjar activities.

Suryaning and Segaria have penetrated gallons water business in Nusa Penida. Product

distribution chains were through traditional market, small shops, and delivery order. Other

side products were growing. Instead of

only sell gallon water; some small shops

were selling lemonade, syrup, boiled

noodle, and other food and beverages.

Impact on economic growth in both

Banjars has not been quantitatively

measured yet. But some evidence in the

field shows that people has got

economic benefit from this business. An

interview conducted recently to a small

shop owner, Mrs. Ketut Lastriyani from Banjar Semaya; she said that her business was

growing because of selling the produced water and other side products. She even could

build a new shop across the old one. Pictures of Mrs. Lastriyani’s old and new small shop as

below;

The fund of the project came from government spending. Each systems investment was Rp.

750,000,000. However, financial analysis was conducted with still considering government

spending as an investment. Analysis for each water treatment system is summarized below;

Investment Rp. 750,000,000

Project Lifetime 15 years

Payback Period 10 years

NPV Rp. 392,000,000

IRR 5%

However, if the price per gallon is set at Rp. 7,000, which still competitive compared to

other commercial gallon water, the return will be much better. Calculated NPV and IRR are

almost doubled and estimated payback period is shortened.

Operating and Maintenance Scheme The systems were being operated for 6 hours of daily operation. While the available

sunshine is 10 hours, the reliability of the system was secured by battery.

Both facilities open from 9 a.m. to 16 p.m. Daily production is 90 water gallons. The buyers

can come directly to the water treatment facility, or can order for deliveries, or can buy

from traditional market or small shops.

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As mentioned previously, the systems were being managed by local cooperatives at each

Banjar. Simple organization structures were developed as below;

The operators are responsible for operating and doing maintenance of the systems. They’ve

already equipped with O&M manual book written in Bahasa Indonesia.

Maintenance was being scheduled from daily maintenance (housekeeping, cleaning the

unused gallons), weekly maintenance (wiping out the solar panel, cleaning all the filters,

tubes, and hose), and other periodic maintenance (membrane cleaning, etc). If there is

system breakdown, the operators can call the closest vendor office in Denpasar, Bali.

Replicability The project is replicable for government spending project or private project. The technology

is available in the market from small scale capacity up to industrial capacity. The technology

is going to be cheaper, efficient, and more modular. And yet, the financial analysis shows

this type of can be a business model which has good financial valuation in certain

circumstances and assumptions. Those technical and financial views must be accompanied

by good socio – culture approach to make the project more sustainable.

Commisioner (Bendesa or Lurah)

Manager

OperatorOperator

Secretary Treasurer

Attachments

Figure 1 Facility Layout

Figure 2 Facility Layout

Construction and Installation Phase

Construction and Installation Phase

Post Project – Operators Training

Post Project - Ceremony

Recent Picture – Banjar Angkal Facility

Recent Picture – Banjar Semaya Facility