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PLN determined to boost electrification
State-owned electricity firm PLN continues to pile up its electrification tasks as it has added an additional 700 villages to the list of 2,510 remote villages needing power by 2019
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tate-owned electricity firm PLN continues to pile up its electrification tasks as it has added an additional 700 villages to the list of 2,510 remote villages needing power by 2019.
While President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration continues to express its commitment to developing Indonesia’s easternmost regions, PLN has set a target to boost the electrification ratio to 89.61 percent in 4,912 villages across Papua and West Papua.
Currently, only 29 percent of the villages in Indonesia’s two easternmost provinces have electricity.
PLN corporate planning director Nicke Widyawati said that in order to procure electricity for 3,214 villages, the firm will need an average of Rp 1.9 trillion (US$142.8 billion) per year until 2019, which is a far cry from investment of around Rp 300 billion in recent years.
The program will be partially funded from PLN’s savings on subsidies following the government’s revocation of subsidized electricity for undeserving customers this year. PLN has estimated that it can save up to Rp 22 trillion in subsidies this year as 18.7 million customers are no longer eligible for reduced prices.
“So, the subsidies that used to be enjoyed by those well-off households can be used to [procure electricity for] those still living in the dark. These programs are a pair,” Nicke said at a press conference on Monday.
The funds will also be used to procure electricity for 535 villages in Maluku and North Maluku. PLN will need at least Rp 756 billion in funds to implement the program.
According to Nicke, PLN has mapped the villages in order to determine what kind of power plants will be built in the area. Villages that are located close to each other will get a connecting grid or grid extension.
Meanwhile, PLN will construct isolated diesel or micro-hydropower plants, hybrid solar power plants or off-grid power plants for isolated villages that can be grouped together. Finally, the firm will construct solar power towers for secluded villages.
The use of renewable energy for electricity procurement in the villages is also intended to increase the portion of renewable energy used in the country and take advantage of local energy sources, according to Nicke. PLN hopes to boost the portion of electricity sourced from renewable energy to 23 percent by 2025 from the current 12 percent.
PLN has set a target to boost Papua and Maluku’s installed capacity to 1,005 megawatts (MW) by 2019 comprising of projects from the ambitious 35,000 MW program and the previous administration’s fast track program (FTP) phase 1.
The efforts to boost electrification on the two islands follow the latest projection that electricity consumption in Maluku and Papua will increase to 3,220 gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2019, or around 435.3 kilowatt hour (kWh) per capita.
A majority of the electricity is predicted to be consumed by businesses, followed by households and the public sector. However, it has proven to be a complex issue as most of the villages aimed for the program are scattered in remote places.
President Jokowi has signed Presidential Regulation No. 47/2017 on the distribution of solar home systems, through the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, to expedite electricity procurement in remote areas, while PLN continues to construct power plants and transmission lines.
According to the presidential regulation, the solar home systems will be provided free of charge and produced by a company running a domestic solar home system production facility. The government also requires the solar power panel to be commercially available in the regional market with a minimum three-year guarantee alongside spare parts.
