UNS — Three Students of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta initiated a Micro Hydro Power Plant (PLTMH) Project in Magetan. This project is part of Internship Scheme for the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka Program (MBKM), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) of the Republic of Indonesia (RI).
The three students are Lana Alfirza, Muhamad Dwi Septiyanto, and Pradipta Nareswari. The students of the Mechanical Engineering Study Program, Faculty of Engineering (FT) UNS, have the opportunity to take six months of out-of-campus study, starting from September 2021 – to February 2022. The program was conducted in the Public Works and Public Housing Office (PUPR) of Magetan Regency, East Java.
Reporting from ft.uns.ac.id, the focus of this internship activities is on the water resources section. It also relates to the projects they conducted. This internship project is divided into two PLTMH, namely the PLTMH in Ngentep and Tirtosari, Sarangan. This alternative renewable resources power plant can be useful for public road lighting and educational tourism from the Sarangan Lake route to the Tirtosari waterfall. The same applies to the Ngentep power plant project. The Ngentep power plant supports the electricity supply for public street lighting because the conditions in the area are still lacking in lighting, and it is very dark at night. The lack of electrical lighting installations in the remote area surrounding Ngentep is one of the reasons.
During the internship period, the three Mechanical Engineering students carried out various work to complete the planned project. According to Dwi, as one of the internship members, the team is entrusted to design the PLTMH building construction. “The design is purely created by us, students, including the power generator system. Following the design, the Ngentep generator has a capacity of 1,000-watt power, and the Tirtosari generator has around 16 to 18 kilos of watts. Our contribution is limited to the design process, potential analysis, supervision of construction workers, and the installed design analysis. For the mechanical aspect, we have specifically constructed the turbine installation of the plant,” explained Dwi (17/02/2022)
This internship project carried out under the supervision of Dr. D. Danardono Dwi Prija T, S.T., M.T., Ph.D., and Prof. Dr. Eng Syamsul Hadi, S.T., M.T., was completed even before the internship period ended. “The project has been finished around December, and we are just waiting for the tool application for distribution,” added Dwi.
Dwi also explained their everyday life during their internship at PUPR Magetan. He recounted his first month when they departed with various tools like wind speed gauges and many others. They searched for rivers data in Magetan that had the potential to install power plants at the request of the Magetan Regency Government. Not only that, but they also measure wind speed.
Furthermore, in the second month, Dwi and his colleagues made the mechanical construction design for the power plant. For this part, they are allowed to work at Magetan or the FT UNS Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. The use of campus laboratories also facilitates consulting sessions with the supervisors.
Then, in the third month, the three were given the project design framework and asked to supervise the construction workers. Once all the tools have been installed and the building has been finished, technical analysis is carried out. The analysis includes building strength, turbine effective life, and preparing the Standard Operation and Procedure (SoP) for turbine maintenance.
Dwi claimed that the experience during his internship at the Magetan Regency PUPR Office was very memorable because Magetan is renowned for beautiful and amazing natural tourism. They hope that the electricity generated from the completed internship projects can be distributed immediately.
“Hopefully, the Magetan PUPR can operate the turbine immediately because it has been installed, thus the electricity can be distributed immediately. Hence, the second purpose of this internship for supporting educational tourism can be implemented smoothly, considering the crowded tourism transportation. At the same time, it can encourage other regions to take advantage of the existing SDA because it is undeniable that in Indonesia, fossil energy for electricity generation still dominant. Hopefully, this PTLMH project can motivate other areas to explore the potential of renewable sources such as water, wind, and others,” he concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Rangga Pangestu Adji
Editor: Dwi Hastuti