PT United Tractors Tbk. (UNTR) has the potential to operate a 2 x 110 MW geothermal power plant (PLTP) through PT Supreme Energy Rantau Dedap (SERD).

PT Energia Prima Nusantara (EPN), a company whose 51.01 percent shares are owned by PT United Tractors Tbk. (UNTR) and 48.99 percent by PT Pamapersada Nusantara (PAMA), signed a Subscription Agreement on Monday, August 7 2023 to take 40.476 percent of the new shares issued by PT Supreme Energy Sriwijaya (SES).

SES is a shareholder in PT Supreme Energy Rantau Dedap (SERD), a company holding a Geothermal Permit with a capacity of 2 x 49 MW which has been operating in Lahat Regency, Pagar Alam City and Muara Enim Regency, South Sumatra Province. SERD itself has the opportunity to increase its capacity to 2 x 110 MW in the future, in accordance with their Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with PLN.

External Relations Department Head of PAMA Gunawan Setiadi said, in the future coal will enter its old age so diversification is a necessity. One of the diversification steps taken by PAMA as an entity of the UNTR Group is by acquiring shares in companies operating in the geothermal sector.

"The acquisition process was also carried out in line with PAMA's efforts to continue to simultaneously encourage the transition to more environmentally friendly and renewable energy," he explained on the sidelines of the Media Gathering Road to 30 Years PAMA — Sustainability Growth event in Balikpapan, Tuesday (5/9 /2023).

Apart from geothermal energy, PAMA through Energia Prima Nusantara is also starting to explore the solar panel energy business through the Solar Power Generation System (PLTS).

As an initial stage, added Gunawan, the use of solar cell energy is still focused on internal companies, both at PAMA Group, United Tractor and Astra Group. For example, PAMA has installed a solar rooftop in the PAMA Head Office area.

The solar panel installation was carried out in 3 stages starting from the PAMA 3 building, continuing to the PAMA 2 building and skybrige, to the southbound skybrige. Currently the solar panels that have been installed have a capacity of 200Kwp.

Gunawan did not deny that the series of diversification actions had not optimally supported the company's financial performance. This is because the diversification process is still at the investment stage.

Non Coal Business

Meanwhile, PT United Tractors Tbk. (UNTR) targets coal and non-coal business revenues to be balanced by 2030.

United Tractors Director Edhie Sarwono said that UNTR is developing a transition strategy to balance coal and non-coal business revenues in 20230. However, the coal business will continue to be optimized in line with the still high energy demand in Indonesia.

"In accordance with the energy transition agenda of the Government and the Astra Group, we have committed that coal business revenues will be balanced with non-coal businesses by 2030. However, this does not mean that we will reduce coal revenues, we will still optimize them and later balance them with non-coal businesses," " he explained at the Astra Tower, Wednesday (7/6/2023).

Edhie said that currently the contribution of the coal business still reaches 72 percent of UNTR's total income. UNTR reported that net income in semester I/2023 reached IDR 68.67 trillion or 14 percent higher than semester I/2022 of IDR 60.44 trillion.

On the other hand, UNTR's net profit rose 8 percent to IDR 11.21 trillion as of June 2023 from IDR 10.35 trillion in the same period in 2022.

The breakdown of UNTR's income in semester I/2023 is that the construction machinery business line contributed 30 percent, mining contractors contributed 35 percent, and coal mining contributed 29 percent of revenue.

Furthermore, gold mining contributed 5 percent, the construction industry 1 percent and energy less than 1 percent.

UNTR's expansion in the non-coal sector which is currently and will continue to be massive is new renewable energy (EBT) and mineral mining. The development of the EBT sector is carried out through its subsidiary, PT Energi Prima Nusantara (EPN).

Edhie said that EPN has three growth strategies, namely the development of solar panels or solar power plants (PLTS), hydroelectric power plants (PLTA), and investment or capital participation.

In the PLTS sector, EPN has developed power up to 6 MW, and in the future it will build further up to 19 MW in the company's pipeline. Meanwhile, in the PLTS business, EPN is currently developing power up to 7.4 MW.

"For EBT, we are collaborating with PLN for a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). So we will sell power to PLN, then PLN will distribute it to customers," he explained.

The majority of EPN's electricity customers come from the Astra Group and its entities, especially for factory needs. Public customer contribution has only reached 4 percent.

From the investment side, EPN has invested capital in PT Arkora Hydro Tbk. (ARKO). EPN is recorded as controlling 26.55 percent of ARKO shares as of April 2023.

According to Edhie, the company is open to the opportunity to acquire other EBT assets. This has become one of the focuses of EPN's expansion.

image source:  UNTR

Source:  www.market.bisnis.com/United Tractors UNTR Working on 2 X 110 Mw Geothermal Potential