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Govt treads carefully in implementing power wheeling
Putra Adhiguna, managing director at the Energy Shift Institute, said the stipulation would safeguard PLN in the scheme's decision-making process, but such flexibility could also cause uncertainty for investments.
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Power of cooperation: Hilly terrain forms a backdrop on Nov. 9, 2023, against the Cirata Floating Solar Power Plant at Cirata Reservoir in Purwakarta, West Java, the largest energy facility of its kind in Southeast Asia that was developed jointly by the Indonesian government and Abu Dhabi-owned renewable company Masdar of the United Arab Emirates. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
T
he government has opted for a careful approach by placing many perquisites in implementing power wheeling, a mechanism that allows private power producers to transmit electricity via the state grid directly to their customers.
Businesses seeking to benefit from the scheme will need to seek approval that will depend on network capacity, system reliability, service quality, economic aspects, state finances and electricity supply and demand, according to a draft bill shown by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on Sept. 9.
Rules on power wheeling have existed in Indonesia since years ago, but the government and the House of Representatives have been devising a new set specifically for clean energy as part of the upcoming renewable energy bill.
Eniya Listiani Dewi, the ministry’s renewables director general, defended the stipulation, stressing that it was part of the free market mechanism.
“There is no liberalization here, everything will still be regulated by the government [...] the transmission price will be regulated by the government,” Eniya told reporters during a briefing on Sept. 9.
The government will set the price to rent grids from state-owned electricity company PLN through the energy ministry to ensure electricity prices remain competitive, she added.
The rule also strictly limits renewable power producers to selling electricity to industrial areas, while prohibiting direct sales to households.
