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tate-owned electricity company PLN has plans to light up the often neglected provinces of Papua and West Papua by the end of next year.

The company is aiming to procure electricity for five regencies this year and nine regencies next year in order to fulfil the government’s target of a 97 percent national electrification ratio by 2019, up from the current ratio of 88.3 percent.

Currently, Papua’s electrification ratio only reaches 45.93 percent while West Papua’s is 82.7 percent, both much lower than the current national average.

PLN regional director for Maluku and Papua, Haryanto, announced on Monday that diesel-fueled power plants in three regencies in Papua — Raja Ampat, Arfak and Teluk Wondama — would start operating on Wednesday as part of the country’s 71st Independence Day commemorations, with a total electricity capacity of 12,047 kilowatts (kW).

Meanwhile, the remaining regencies set to be lit up this year will start operating in October with a total 3,520 kW.

Haryanto said efforts to procure electricity for one of the country’s most remote regions had stalled due to high fees and a lack of infrastructure. However, PLN decided to start developing the regencies due to the enthusiasm shown by the administrations and locals.

“One of the biggest challenges to procure electricity for Papua and West Papua includes the geographical conditions, which encompasses mountains and forests. Furthermore, there is limited transportation infrastructure, which has led to high operating costs and fuel transportation fees per kilowatt hour [kWh],” he said during a press briefing on Monday.

Prior to PLN entering the regencies, electricity was independently managed by individual administrations. PLN plans to take over the operation of existing diesel-fueled and solar power plants and also develop new power plants and transmissions in order to boost Papua and West Papua’s electrification ratio to 75 percent by the end of 2019.

By the end of 2017, the 14 regencies are expected to have a total electricity capacity of 14,110 kW. The project will need a total investment of Rp 156.02 billion (US$11.9 million) and annual operating fees of Rp 191.9 billion.

The project is expected to allow 277 villages to gain access to electricity, leading to an exponential increase of 15,795 PLN electricity subscribers.

Haryanto explained that the plan to procure electricity for the 14 regencies was separate to the government-sponsored 35,000 megawatt (MW) project and the Indonesia Terang (Bright Indonesia) project, the latter of which also intends to procure electricity for remote villages across the nation through renewable energy sources.

“However, we continue to work together and compare notes with the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s new and renewable energy so that our projects don’t clash,” he said.

In the government’s ambitious 35,000 MW project, PLN and independent power producers (IPP) are expected to develop power plants with a total electricity capacity of 580 MW in 33 locations in Papua and West Papua.

Furthermore, PLN still has several projects in both provinces from the FTP phase one and phase two programs, worth up to 68 MW in three locations.