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Don’t be ‘prodigal’, PLN told
Sudirman Said - JPThe government’s internal conflicts over energy policy have finally turned ugly after Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said publicly expressed his anger toward a politically wired state-owned company executive he claimed was hampering efforts to speed up the country’s electrification program
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Sudirman Said - JP
The government’s internal conflicts over energy policy have finally turned ugly after Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said publicly expressed his anger toward a politically wired state-owned company executive he claimed was hampering efforts to speed up the country’s electrification program.
Sudirman’s frustration with electricity company PLN’s president director Sofyan Basir seemingly hit boiling point, as he openly shared his bitterness over the company’s insubordination in a public forum on Friday.
The minister warned Sofyan not to be a “prodigal son” for his betrayal to his institution.
Relations between the two institutions have been on thin ice after Sofyan, who led state-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia prior to his appointment as a PLN top executive in 2014, recently conveyed his reluctance to move forward with several electricity procurement projects assigned by the ministry.
During an event to introduce PLN’s 2016-2025 electricity procurement business plan (RUPTL), the soft-spoken Sudirman suddenly threw Sofyan under the bus before the audience, which consisted of government officials and business players, as well as PLN corporate planning director Nicke Widyawati, the firm’s only executive in attendance at the event.
“PLN is a utility company whose goal is not just to gain profit, but also fulfill the needs of the community. So it is totally wrong if we keep talking about what is profitable and what isn’t in the electricity sector. You cannot measure [PLN] the same way you would a bank,” Sudirman said in his opening remarks.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration has set an ambitious plan to develop an additional 35,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity capacity by 2019 to increase the nation’s electricity supply, which remains lower than any of its Southeast Asian peers despite being the region’s largest economy.
The electrification rate is expected to rise to 97 percent in 2019 from 88.3 percent at present.
As well as working on some of the power plants, PLN is also juggling many other projects.
However, PLN announced last month that it would not move forward with the construction of an inter-island 500 kilovolt (kV) high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable between Sumatra and Java because it was no longer economically feasible and unnecessary as Java was almost at full electrical capacity.
The ministry, however, reinstated the project when it signed off on the company’s latest RUPTL, alongside a 5x600 MW mine-mouth power plant in South Sumatra, another project PLN had planned to terminate.
The conflict between Sudirman and Sofyan emerged amid rumors of an imminent second Cabinet reshuffle to accommodate members of the Golkar Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), which have thrown their support behind the ruling coalition led by Jokowi’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
In a recent hearing, lawmakers also confronted Sofyan, known for his loyalty to the President and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini Soemarno, about his alleged conflict with Sudirman, who is considered a close acquaintance of Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Sofyan explained that the firm had a responsibility to both the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and the SOEs Ministry, but the former tended to issue regulations without regard for business interests.
“We have to be efficient. There are two policies, a corporate and sectoral policy, and they must be interconnected,” he said.
Sudirman acknowledged this during his sudden outburst, but insisted that PLN prioritize its responsibilities to his ministry as it was the one issuing all technical regulations regarding the country’s energy policy. He also claimed that the ministry had always involved PLN in composing such regulations.
“The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry serves as the mother, we nurture and care for PLN, whereas the SOEs Ministry is the father, who asks about your test scores. Stop being a prodigal son,” he said.
This is not the first time Sudirman has butted heads with other high-level officials. Last year, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan accused Sudirman of causing unrest by reporting an alleged backroom deal between Luhut, former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto and PT Freeport Indonesia on the mining firm’s contract extension.
Sofyan, however, gave a calm response to Sudirman’s tirade, saying he was always ready to discuss electricity issues with the minister.
“We have no [personal] problem,” he said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
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