T

he government will soon roll out some other power plant construction projects following the ground-breaking ceremony for the 2 x 1,000 megawatt (MW) project in Batang, Central Java, on Friday, according to a Cabinet minister.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said emphasized those new projects would help the government in meeting its target of developing enough new power plants to generate an additional 35,000 MW of electricity by 2019.

After the Batang power plant, the government was scheduled to have a ground-breaking ceremony for a 1,000 MW power plant project in Cirebon, West Java, a 2 x 650 MW plant in South Sumatra and another power plant project in Cilacap, Central Java, this year.

'€œFrom the preparation of the projects, we are quite optimistic. There'€™s also no problem on the financing part because most of the projects that will start are for the expansion of existing operational power plants, such as in Cirebon and Cilacap,'€ he told the press on Sunday.

'€œThe situation in the field at the moment makes me certain that it [the 35,000 MW program] can proceed.'€

Sudirman also said the government had at least ensured that contracts for the construction of plants for 10,000 MW of the total 35,000 MW program would be signed this year, between independent power producers (IPPs) and state-owned electricity firm Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).

Sudirman added that the remaining 4,000 MW power plant projects from the previous administration would also be finished this year as the progress of the projects, known as the fast-track program, were more than 80 percent complete.

Those projects would add to the much-anticipated Batang power plant, that will become Southeast Asia'€™s biggest coal-fired power plant. The ground-breaking ceremony of the 2 x 1,000 MW power plant on Friday was led by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo.

The project development lagged for four years because of protracted problems in land procurement.

Jokowi introduced the 35,000 MW power plant development program in October last year in a move to meet the ever-growing electricity consumption in the country and also to prevent blackouts. Power consumption in the country grows around 8 percent per year.

Critics, however, compare Jokowi'€™s megaproject with the past administration'€™s fast-track program, which aimed to produce an additional 10,000 MW of electricity. The past administration ended up finishing only around 7,000 MW because of some issues over incapable developers and land acquisition.

Sudirman added the government had learned from past mistakes, such as the lengthy time of negotiation with independent power producers and the low reliability and quality of construction.

One of the measures taken was an obligatory due diligence process for independent power producers before they could win projects, as stipulated by Ministerial Regulation No. 3/2015.

He also expressed his support to the idea of making the state electricity company PLN more effective by appointing a regional director for each region in the country. The '€œregionalization'€ of PLN was expected to improve the company'€™s management as it would rely less on the central headquarters.

The move was seen as urgent as the electricity capacity under the company would double within the next five years with the 35,000 MW program.

Rinaldy Daimi from the National Energy Council (DEN) said the plan for regionalization of energy has been included in the latest National Energy Policy (KEN).

He said that it would start from PLN, which would then be followed by more participation of regional leaders as shareholders of future power plant projects to ease land procurement.

'€œIt would speed up the 35,000 MW development,'€ Rinaldy said.