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Diversification needed to support Industry 4.0
Stakeholders are seeking to diversify and delegate power sources in order to fully enable the fourth industrial revolution, dubbed Industry 4
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takeholders are seeking to diversify and delegate power sources in order to fully enable the fourth industrial revolution, dubbed Industry 4.0, in Indonesia.
Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry director general of electricity Andy Noorsaman Sommeng said during a discussion that as Industry 4.0 was based on automation, more electricity would be required.
He cited a “grid edge” electricity concept, which is a system that basically emphasizes the diversification of electricity in the upstream sector.
“All tools in industrialization depend on electricity, and many of them will be inside our own homes, like the Internet of Things and electric car charging,” Andy said recently. “Therefore, the choice of technology and efficiency to generate electricity should be improved as well.”
Such a concept would become plausible if the government could encourage more players in the renewable energy sector to partake in electricity generation, he said, pointing out that the national energy plan had set out 23 percent of electricity to come from new and renewable sources by 2025.
According to data from the directorate general, the renewable energy mix in Indonesia’s electricity generation reached up to 14 percent by mid-2018.
He also supported the idea for individual manufacturers to create their own mini power plants to ensure access to electricity so they would not have to constantly depend on the nation’s single electricity provider, the state-owned PLN.
Property owners could also opt to install solar panels to diversify their sources.
“We are still at the third wave of electricity, which already acknowledges the use of renewable energy sources, but we have yet to incorporate them in the [electricity] grid. I think we will be ready to implement the fourth wave for Java and Bali in the near future,” said Sommeng.
During the discussion, electricity firm PT Cirebon Electric Power president director Heru Dewanto cited data his company had calculated on how the proper implementation of Industry 4.0 could benefit the electricity industry.
For example, Industry 4.0 could help coal-fired power plants improve their efficiency by 0.5 to 1.5 percent, as well as reduce maintenance costs by 15 to 20 percent.
“The technology of Industry 4.0 would also enable us to predict when electricity outages are likely to occur,” Heru said.
He pointed out a study by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), which found that 92 percent of Indonesian factories were still operating with methods under foreign licenses, showing that a very small proportion of domestic production originates from Indonesian technology.
Therefore, Indonesia would need to invent more advanced production methods that incorporate renewable energy, he added.
Nevertheless, Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) executive director Hendra Sinadia said coal would always play a great role in automation and empowering Industry 4.0, as it remained the cheapest source of electricity in Indonesia to date.
Hendra said according to the General Planning for National Energy (RUEN), domestic coal miners could no longer export their products by 2050 due to increasing demands from domestic coal-fired power plants, despite the availability of new and renewable sources.
