Demand for electricity has started to rebound as COVID-19 infections continue to decline, restrictions are eased and manufacturing activities resume.
ational electricity consumption reached 22 terawatt-hours (TWh) last month, the highest since 2017, as economic activity continued to recover across the country, PLN has said.
The company released a statement on Sunday that cumulative electricity consumption reached 210 TWh in October this year, marking a 4.7 percent year-on-year (yoy) rise. The state-owned electricity company has targeted reaching 253 TWh in power consumption by the year-end, according to its long-term electricity procurement plan (RUPTL).
“We hope the pandemic will remain under control so we can reach the targeted 253 TWh,” PLN spokesman Agung Murdifi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The government began easing the public activity restrictions (PPKM) to level 1 in October as the second COVID-19 wave receded, starting with Blitar, East Java.
Level 1 is the lowest alert level in the four-tiered PPKM.
The gradual easing of pandemic curbs and the imminent arrival of the year-end holiday shopping season have pushed factory activities to the highest level ever. This was indicated in the rise in the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) in October to 57.2, the highest level since global information provider IHS Markit launched the index in 2011.
Read also: Manufacturing activity reaches record-high in October
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