PLN to Electrify 562 Villages in Papua, Maluku
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Kamis, 1 Januari 1970 07:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned power company PLN is planning to invest Rp2.54 trillion to electrify 562 villages in Papua and Maluku this year. Some 365 villages in Papua and 197 villages in Maluku will be electrified with Rp1.82 trillion and Rp721 billion investments, respectively.
“By the end of last year, only 24 percent of villages in Papua were electrified or 1,187 out of 4,912 villages,” PLN Planning Director Nieke Widyawati said yesterday in Jakarta. Meanwhile, some 1,666 out of 2,390 villages in Maluku or 69 percent were electrified in the same period.
Nieke said that PLN needs a lot of funds for the investment. She said that the funds will be collected from subsidies. “People who are not entitled to receive subsidies will get them be revoked. Funds collected from reduced subsidies will be used for the program.”
To electrify villages that are already connected to the power grid, Nieke said, the PLN will extend the power grid. As for isolated villages, the company will build diesel isolated power plants, micro-hydro power plants, hybrid solar power plants, off-grid solar power plants and solar power towers.
Next year, PLN and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry are aiming to electrify 1,142 villages in Papua and 196 villages in Maluku. In 2019, as many as 1,707 villages in Papua and 142 villages will be electrified.
Nieke said that power projects in 3,749 villages in Papua and Maluku throughout 2017-2019 will create 12,000 new jobs. Once the projects are completed, the installations will be operated by 3,600 workers.
ANGELINA ANJAR SAWITRI