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‘Less than half of 35,000 MW target to be achieved’
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (second right), Papua Governor Lukas Enember (second left), State-owned Enterprises Minister Rini M. Soemarno (right) and PLN president director Sofyan Basri push a button, marking the start of the construction of six power plant projects in Papua and West Papua on Oct. 17, 2016. (JP/Nethy Dharma Somba)
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ccording to a Committee for the Acceleration of Priority Infrastructure Delivery (KPPIP) estimate, the government will only be able to construct new power plants with a combined capacity of around 15,000 megawatts (MW) by 2019, less than half of its 35,000 MW target.
“It is not bad. From the target of 35,000 MW, we can achieve 15,000 MW,” said Wahyu Utomo, chairman of the KPPIP, a committee under the supervision of the Economic Coordinating Minister's office, in Jakarta on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com.
He explained that the government, through state-owned electricity company PLN, had finished constructing power plants with a combined capacity of 758 MW, while power plants accounting for a further 14,758 MW were still under construction.
Wahyu, however, could not make assurances that all the power plants now under construction would be completed by 2019. If they were completed, however, the total extra capacity achieved by 2019 would be 15,516 MW.
Read also: Ongoing 35,000 MW project needs rethinking: JokowiHe explained that the government had already signed power purchase agreements (PPA) with private companies to develop power plants with a combined capacity of 8,750 MW, but that the projects were yet to reach financial close.
Meanwhile, power plants with a combined capacity of 4,590 MW were still in the procurement process, while the remaining power plants, accounting for 6,970 MW, were still in the planning phase, he added.
The 35,000 megawatts electrification program is an ambitious government program initiated by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and given a deadline of 2019 to be achieved.
