Jokowi Wants Power Plant Projects on Electricity-deprived Areas
22 June 2016 19:36 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo led a closed cabinet meeting on the Acceleration of the 35,000 MW Electricity Infrastructure Development Program Completion. In his opening remark, Jokowi asked that power plant constructions be prioritized on areas with low electrification ratios.
The president also asked that the project acceleration is done by building mobile power plants (MPP) or vessel power plants (VPP).
"After my visit to a number of electricity infrastructure in a number of provinces including Bangka Belitung, Aceh, West Kalimantan, Gorontalo, West Nusa Tenggara Barat and Bali, I would like to again emphasize on prioritizing areas that are lacking electricity supplies," the president said Wednesday, June 22, Bisnis Indonesia reported.
That way, Jokowi said, Indonesia can increase the speed of adding power plant capacities, thus answering public complaints about the lack of electricity in their areas.
Jokowi also asked for regions with excessive power supplies to start converting to power generators that run on new and renewable energy sources.
For that to succeed, private businesses should be given bigger roles in helping the government speed up the development of electricity infrastructures. Privates can tap the renewable energy-based power generating businesses, especially those sourced from geothermal and water (hydropower).