Background:
Sukarame is a rural village located in West Java Province, Indonesia. It is bounded by Mount Halimun Salak National Park to the North and Pelabuhan Ratu Bay to the South. The location proximity from Jakarta (145km) and its unique natural ecosystem has created a huge potential for research, therapeutic activity, as well as tourist attraction.
Onsen Sukarame Resort Corporation Ltd (PT OSR) is developing a master plan for an Onsen Sukarame Resort (OSR) over a total area of 30ha in Sukarame, stretching 4km of river and including 6 hot springs. PT OSR would like to engage RMIT staff and students in various research projects to incorporate sustainable development principles in their development plan and make OSR a self-sufficient and sustainable destination in Indonesia.
PT OSR aims for 100 percent renewable energy (RE) supply at the resort. At this moment they are using one Pelton Turbine (water-wheel turbine) to generate electricity for the development/construction work at the site. However, this turbine will be inadequate to meet the sites’ energy needs once the resort is operational. It is important to explore all possible RE options at the site so that PT OSR can maximise the opportunities and achieve their target.
Project aim:
This project aims to evaluate what the renewable energy sources are available at this site and quantify their possible electricity generation capabilities.
Project Activities:
– Exploring the electrical grid arrangements in Sukarame, such as export restrictions, supply limitations, energy costs for import/export, possibilities for net metering, green energy purchasing etc.,
– Exploring the technical and economic merits of various renewable energy options, such as solar PV, geothermal, micro hydro, wind and biomass.
– Calculate the potential for hydro power generation.
– Simulating the potential for solar energy generation on site. This may include a large commercial solar system installed on the current helicopter landing area (government land) or distributed solar which is installed on selected rooftops across the site.
Methodology
This project will require the student to generate a realistic load profile from the site. i.e. extrapolate designed building loads, mechanical plant, ancillary loads (E. V’s etc.) to establish the temporal/seasonal requirement for energy.
This project will explore energy storage as well as import/export via grid coupling to achieve the lowest cost energy security. Required generation capacity will also be minimised via careful design of loads, e.g. keep peak loads to a minimum using demand management, hydro for baseload and solar for daily peaks, etc.
Considerable attention will be paid to understanding the need for cooling at the site, as given the humidity of the location and the presence of mosquitos, resort customers are likely will heavily on refrigerated air conditioning.
Deliverables
| No. | Main Deliverable | Description | Estimated Timing |
| 1 | Project Plan | Students discuss with PT OSR and RMIT academic supervisors about a detailed project plan. | February 2020 |
| 2 | Literature Review | Review relevant literature (published data). | March 2020 |
| 3 | Data Collection and Analysis | PT OSR provide students with all required information and data.
Students analyze the data and draft the report |
March – April 2020 |
| 4 | Draft Report | Draft Report | May 2020 |
| 5 | Final Report | Final Report | End of June 2020 |
Work Method
– This project will be supervised by Dr. Mahdi Jalili and Dr. Cameron Stanley from School of Engineering, RMIT University.
– Final year students will implement this project as Capstone Engineering project.
– The supervisors help students identify learning objectives at the start of the project, provide them with technical advice during the project implementation, and evaluate their work at the end of the project.
– Students conduct the research in Melbourne, Australia.
– PT OSR will appoint a person-in-charge to help students access data.
