Mulyagusdin

This is part two of a three-part series on Floating PLTS and Aceh's Destination Statement. In part one, Neraca yang Terlewat: Aceh Butuh Destination Statement Sebelum 2045, I wrote about the Balanced Scorecard and the Business Model Canvas, and why Aceh needs to write a Destination Statement before talking about Net Zero Emissions by 2045. The Seulawah Agam geothermal project is still on hold until around 2032. But there's one other idea whose canvas has already started to fill in. At Paya Seunara Reservoir, Sabang, there's a plan for a PLTS to be built as an example of applying the Destination Statement framework.

A quick reminder: Destination Statement is how the third generation of the Balanced Scorecard works (Ronchetti, 2006); you write, in as much detail as possible, what an organization will become at some point in the future, and only then work the strategy and business canvas backward from there. At Paya Seunara Reservoir, Sabang City, I saw this framework being tried out, no longer just on academic paper, but in the form of documents now being drafted to bring to the negotiating table. What I'm writing here is the framework of thinking, not the activities that will actually be carried out.

My interest in clean energy and grid integration isn't new. A decade ago, at a clean energy seminar in Bandung, BPPT had already presented similar research on integrating renewable energy into the power grid, long before floating PLTS became the hot topic it is today.

“Renew of the Far West”

The Aceh Chapter of the Association of Indonesian Engineers, together with the Water Resources Professionals Association and Karst Aceh, is preparing a technical and business outreach forum to accelerate the Floating PLTS plan for the reservoir. Read through a Balanced Scorecard lens, this forum is, in effect, filling in the business canvas block by block, for real.

The draft Destination Statement has already been written: making Sabang the icon of “Renew of the Far West”, underpinning the vision of the Green Industrial Park Aceh. The value proposition on the table is fairly clear: Sabang runs on an isolated power grid with an expensive cost of production, so replacing diesel with solar power, if approved, isn't just environmental lip service, but a real savings potential for PLN and a power purchase agreement tariff that remains attractive to investors.

The planned forum is targeting the involvement of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR), the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), PLN, BPKS Sabang, and prospective investors, but this is still at the stage of invitations and proposals, not a certainty that all parties have agreed to sit at the same table. Even if things proceed as planned, there's hope that the success of the Cirata Floating PLTS, the largest floating solar power plant in Southeast Asia (192 MWp), which uses less than 5 percent of its reservoir's surface area, can serve as a reference point for Sabang.

The Balance Sheet Rarely Discussed: the Water-Energy Nexus

What's interesting is that this PLTS, if it goes ahead and succeeds, will force an additional balance sheet onto the table that's rarely discussed in renewable energy conversations: Water-Energy Nexus. A study by Sabang City's Bappeda (Regional Development Planning Agency) together with Karst Aceh found that Sabang's geology, dominated by pyroclastic rock and limestone, doesn't hold groundwater for long. In other words, the reservoir is vital raw-water infrastructure for the city, whose empty surface area happens to be usable for solar panels.

The rules of the game from the Ministry of PUPR already anticipate this: under Minister of PUPR Regulation No. 7 of 2023 (the second amendment to PUPR Regulation No. 27/PRT/M/2015 on Dams), the use of a reservoir's inundation space for a floating PLTS may not exceed 20 percent of the inundation surface area at normal water level, and if it does, the technical study must first obtain a recommendation from the Dam Safety Commission. This is exactly what I meant by “ethics and ecosystem” in the first piece: the financial value proposition must not come at the expense of the infrastructure's basic function for the surrounding community. A good business canvas puts this constraint in as part of the design, not as a “problem need to be solved” that surfaces later.

If this forum delivers what it's targeting, a memorandum of understanding, a letter of intent, all the way to an initial power purchase agreement, then Sabang will be proof that a Destination Statement-based business canvas isn't just viable on academic paper, but can actually work at a real negotiating table.

But the energy canvas, however sophisticated, only answers half the question. There's one other balance sheet that no one in Aceh has written yet, not about how electricity is made, but about how goods move in and out of this island and into the economic heart of Aceh Province. That story I'll write later.

Sources and references

1. Ronchetti, J. L. (2006). An Integrated Balanced Scorecard Strategic Planning Model for Nonprofit Organizations. Journal of Practical Consulting.
2. Persatuan Insinyur Indonesia Wilayah Aceh, Karst Aceh, dan Himpunan Profesional Sumber Daya Air (2025); Pemanfaatan Tampungan Waduk Sebagai Potensi Energi Terbarukan.
3. Peraturan Presiden No. 112 Tahun 2022 tentang Percepatan Pengembangan Energi Terbarukan untuk Penyediaan Tenaga Listrik.
4. Surat Edaran Direktur Jenderal Sumber Daya Air Kementerian PUPR No. 11/SE/D/2023 tentang Petunjuk Teknis Tata Cara Penyusunan Kajian Teknis Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Surya Terapung.