Updating Facilities
The most substantial steps being taken focus on ensuring that gas-fired power plants use high-efficiency technologies. According to IEA data, Brunei Darussalam’s power plants had an average efficiency of 28% in 2011, compared to 42% in the US. Two major power plant upgrades were already under way in 2014. At the Lumut plant, the government was spending BN$300m ($235.29m) to add 66 MW of capacity using heat-and-power cogeneration technology, which will result in overall savings of BN$118m ($92.55m) each year in tems of fuel costs. At the Berakas power plant, the state-owned Berakas Power Management Company is installing an OR egen waste-heat recovery system from General Electric on the plant’s existing four gas turbines. The systems will add 56 MW of capacity and boost efficiency by more than 45%, while also requiring far less water than a standard combined-cycle plant. That first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2016