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New energy rule discourages rooftop solar systems, say users
A recent revision to the energy ministry's regulation for on-grid solar systems and energy distribution businesses will slow solar adoption in the country due to provisions that make installation less attractive and getting on-grid more difficult, users say.
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A technician checks a rooftop solar system on June 15, 2023 at a house in Denpasar, Bali. (Biosolarfarm)
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newly revised ministerial regulation makes installing rooftop solar panels at residential homes even less attractive for local users than it was before, while it saddles future adopters of the clean energy technology with complicated bureaucratic procedures.
“My electricity bill could be cut 70 percent by installing on-grid solar [system],” Anak Agung Bagus Putra Utama, a user in Bali, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
“But with the export stipulation gone and the enactment of a quota, who will be interested?” he said, referring to the government’s newly approved revision to Energy and Mineral Resources Ministerial Regulation No. 26/2021 on on-grid solar systems and energy distribution businesses.
The revised rule scraps a previous provision that allows residential users of rooftop solar panels to sell their surplus solar energy to state-owned electricity firm PLN for a deduction on their electricity bill, thereby speeding up their return on investment.
The new rule, whose enactment date has not been announced, also introduces a quota system for on-grid solar installations based on the remaining quota on the PLN grid for a particular area.
According to the prevailing regulations, a customer can install solar panels with generation capacity that reaches up to 100 percent of their electricity consumption.
Bagus, who used to promote the use of solar panels via his social media account AjikOnline, criticized the quota system in the revised regulation, saying this would make it less effective in increasing solar adoption.
