Field Manager of Pertamina EP Rantau Richard Muttalib stated on Thursday that a years research on using ambarella trees to generate electricity had yielded a good result, wherein the local community had received electric power.
"The test was conducted in a remote and isolated area in Aceh Province, including the Junior High School (SMP) Yayasan Merdeka as the first site to utilize electricity produced by a power plant, which used ambarella trees. We have already conducted two evaluations, and the results were very encouraging," he affirmed here.
The power plant used 45 trunks of ambarella trees, measuring a diameter of nine inches each. Muttalib did not elaborate on the amount of electricity the power plant had generated.
The field manager remarked that it was too early to disclose the amount of electricity produced by the power plant as further studies had to be conducted by experts at the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta.
Muttalib argued a glimmer of hope has started to appear at junior high school (SMP) Yayasan Merdeka in Tampor Paluh village, Simpang Jernih Sub-district, Aceh Province. Apart from the school, people in the local village would soon utilize the natural source of electrical energy.
"We want to patent the new finding in which the central party is currently carrying out the process to this end. Due to the finding, Pertamina EP Field Rantau has already received a gold Proper award from the president. I am proud of the finding as it was the nations work," Muttalib disclosed.
Proper is a program evaluating companies performance in environmental management as stated in the Environment Ministry Regulation No. 3/2014 on the Evaluation Program for Companies Performance in the Management of Environment, locally known as PROPER-LH.
Proper is one of the flagship programs of the Environment and Forestry Ministry developed since 2002, aiming at encouraging innovation in managing natural resources and empowering the society.
Technically, Legal and Relation Assistant Manager of Pertamina EP Rantau H. Jufry stated that generating electricity by utilizing ambarella trees was a new discovery in Aceh Province and perhaps in Indonesia.
Merdeka SMP, located at an altitude of 1.2 thousand meters above sea level, is an example of the first beneficiary of the electrical energy produced by utilizing the potential of ambarella trees.
By utilizing electrical energy, Merdeka SMP could gain a better learning, he noted.
"Likewise, we must look ahead to further tap the potential of ambarella trees here to be utilized to generate a potential alternative source of electric power," Jufry added.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
