T

he government is preparing a new pricing regulation for micro-hydro, wind and solar plants to ensure that the prices are attractive to investors, an official with the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry says.

Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Rudi Rubiandini said in Jakarta that the government hoped the new regulation would increase the proportion of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix.

He explained that the new pricing regulation was needed because the current cost of electricity produced from renewable energy sources was not investor-friendly.

Rudi said the government planned to increase the price of electricity generated by micro-power plants to between Rp 975 and Rp 1,050 (11 US cents) per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the current price of Rp 656 per kWh.

“The new price for [electricity from] solar power plants will be around Rp 1,880 to Rp 3,135, and that from wind power plants will be around Rp 1,250 to Rp 1,810 per kWh, depending on the location of the power plants,” he said. State electricity company PT PLN is the main purchaser of electricity produced by independent power producers (IPPS).

In July, the government raised the price for geothermal power plants to between 10 US cents and 17 cents per kWh, depending on their locations, from an initial 9.7 cents per kWh. And it also set the price for city waste-fired power plants at between 12 cents to 14 cents per kWh.