The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsPLN needs more than a new boss
While the recent change at the helm of the state electricity company seems to signal continuity at first glance, given the President's urging a “comprehensive transformation”, Suroso might actually have a chance to spread his wings as PLN's former renewables director.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A technician from state electricity company PLN stands atop a transmission tower on Dec. 27, 2023, during regular maintenance work in Palu, Central Sulawesi. (Antara/Basri Marzuki)
D
armawan Prasodjo’s replacement as president director of PLN looks like a logical move given all the power supply problems lately, but neither the state electricity company nor government officials have presented the move in such a light.
Analysts speaking to The Jakarta Post suggested the leadership change might simply be because Darmawan had held the post for almost five years, a remarkably long tenure for a PLN president director.
That does not reflect any sense of urgency for change even though change is badly needed, not just in how PLN is managed but also what role it plays in the national energy policy.
The choice of Suroso Isnandar, who previously served as the company’s project management and renewable energy director, also points to continuity rather than change: A spokesman stated that Suroso had been appointed to “continue” the company’s transformation, though he also mentioned strengthening grid reliability and developing renewable energy.
Millions of residential consumers and small businesses have been suffering from large-scale power outages over the past few years. The last thing they want is continuity. Large commercial customers meanwhile need reliable access to green power to burnish their environmental credentials.
Changing the president director will also not cut it for independent power producers or rooftop solar installers who demand an overhaul of the rules on power supply and transmission.
To be fair, the fundamental changes many stakeholders expect cannot be delivered from within PLN. These require new laws and regulations and a rewrite of the state-owned power supplier’s mission statement, which requires top-level political decisions.
