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2020 power usage expected to fall by 6 percent as business slumps
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Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry electrification director general Rida Mulyana speaks to geothermal industry players at the Aryaduta Hotel in Jakarta on May 18, 2017. (Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry /Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry )
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ndonesia’s electricity consumption this year is expected to fall by 6.25 percent from last year’s because of the ongoing global health crisis, which has dampened commerce in the country, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has said.
The ministry’s electrification director general, Rida Mulyana, said on July 30 that overall consumption would be driven down by lower consumption among businesses and industries.
Power usage in June was propped up by the residential sector and by the “special category” sector, which includes industrial areas, Special Economic Zones and Jakarta’s light rail transit (LRT). Residential consumption was up 9.84 percent year-on-year (yoy) in June, and special category consumption was up 43 percent.
“Overall, there was still growth of 0.96 percent [yoy] in June,” Rida told reporters during an online briefing.
Usage in the business sector fell by 6.68 percent yoy and usage in the industrial sector fell by 7.18 percent yoy in June as commercial activity slowed down amid large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in and around big cities.
Earlier in the year, state-owned electricity firm PLN projected that electricity demand would be 9.7 percent below the initial target.
The government announced on July 30 that it had ordered PLN to waive minimum monthly electricity fees for businesses, industries and public services to expedite Indonesia’s economic recovery.
The fees will be waived for 400,000 such entities for power consumed between July and December, and the deductions will be reflected in bills in the following month.
Global electricity consumption this year is expected to fall 5 percent from last year’s, the International Energy Agency (IEA) wrote in a report released in April.
“This would be the largest decline since the Great Depression,” the IEA report reads.
Read also: PLN to waive minimum electricity fees for businesses, public services
