PLN's executive vice president in charge of marketing and customer service, Edison Sipahutar, estimates electricity consumption will fall between 0.6 percent and 1.2 percent in 2020  from 245.52 terawatt-hours (TWh), assuming sluggish factory, office and retail activities continue over the next nine months.

“Household electricity consumption will increase but we also expect a decrease in business and industry consumption,” Edison told The Jakarta Post on Monday (23/3).

He said that, next month alone, household consumption is projected to rise by up to 2 percent while industrial and business consumption decreases as much as 2.4 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.

In boosting industrial consumption, Edison said the electricity company would introduce discounts for off-peak hour usage and for customers who switch from privately owned power sources to PLN. He also said PLN “was considering” rolling out an electricity bill installment scheme for affected industrial customers.

Growing electricity consumption is critical for the financial continuity of Indonesia’s sole electricity distribution company. PLN is currently struggling to weather a power oversupply arising from Indonesia’s lower-than-expected economic growth, which was only made worse by the pandemic.

Bank Indonesia on March 19 revised the country’s economic growth target to a maximum 4.6 percent this year from 5.4 percent previously.

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