We understood from the outset that realizing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s dream of adding 35 Gigawatts (GW) in electricitygenerating capacity to the grid by 2019 is undeniably difficult. As 2019 is already peeking around the corner, and while I still support this project, my confidence in the completion of the massive power projects is decreasing. By September 2017, only 773 megawatts of the 35 GW have entered the grid. The construction of another 15.2 GW is underway, and another 10.2 GW has reached the power purchase agreement (PPA) stage, but construction hasn’t begun. The point is, even in the utmost optimistic scenario, the potential additional electricity by 2019 is approximately 26 GW. To expedite tenders, a new procurement method was introduced in 2017. Through the new mechanism, state-owned electricity company PLN can assign projects to its subsi...

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