Four UGM students teaming up as GeoMech won the top prize in the Geothermal Development Plan Competition at the Integrated Petroleum Festival (IPFEST) on February 24 at the Bandung Institute of Technology.
The four students are Vincentius Adven Brilian from Mechanical Engineering, Saeful Ghofar Zamianie Putra from Geophysics, Alfu Afkar Aniffari from Geological Engineering, and Sarah Rania Jasmine from Geological Engineering. They were mentored by Geological Engineering lecturer Dr. Pri Utami.
Afkar said the competition consisted of three stages: abstract selection, essay selection, and final presentation. At the abstract stage, participants were asked to make an abstract of 500 words on geothermal prospect development strategies.
“This stage had 19 teams from Indonesia and one from Algeria. The top eight teams then advanced to the essay stage, where participants had to write a five-page essay on the challenges of geothermal development in Indonesia,” Afkar said in a release sent on Wednesday (4/4).
Qualifying for the final were two teams from Universitas Gadjah Mada, two from Bandung Institute of Technology, and one from Diponegoro University. In this round, participants acted as consultants working on an initial feasibility study of the Mataloko Geothermal Working Area (WKP) development in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.
The scope of the study was 3G exploration data in the fields of Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry, estimation of reserves and resources, drilling strategy, surface facilities, and project economics. The study report had a three-week deadline for completion and had to be presented on the day of the competition in front of four judges.
Based on the results of the technical and economic studies, his team’s solution to develop a geothermal power plant (PLTP) with an installed capacity of 22 Megawatts in stages proved to be economical.
The biggest challenge faced by the team during the process was that the team members were in different locations due to practical work and final assignments. However, the GeoMech team managed to work well together until the end.
“GeoMech was crowned the winner of the competition in the end. We hope the solutions and innovations offered to develop the Mataloko Geothermal Working Area can help accelerate the utilization of geothermal energy potential in Indonesia, which is still not optimal,” he concluded.
Author: Gusti Grehenson