TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Director of state power company PLN Sofyan Basir said that his office will pursue to achieve the 97 percent electrification target by the end of the year. “We will achieve it. The target is 97 percent, we have reached 93 percent. 2019's target is 97 percent, we are faster,” he said after the meeting with President Joko Widodo in the National Palace, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, February 1.

Sofyan said Jokowi has instructed to accelerate the electrification in East Indonesia, especially in Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Papua. “The president asked for it to be done sooner,” he said.

To reach the target, Sofyan said that PLN is supported by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) through several programs. One of them is by installing the Sehen (super extra energy-efficient) lamp whose energy generated from the solar power.

Read: PLN Jakarta Fast tracks Power Projects to Welcome Asian Games

Sofyan said, about 500 of the 1,800 villages that are using Sehen lamps will be replaced with fixed electricity until the end of 2018.

Earlier, ESDM Minister Ignasius Jonan said that the realization of electrification ratio until the end of 2017 has reached 94.83 percent or 2.08 percent higher than the target (92.75 percent).
Jonan believed that it will reach 97.5 percent this year or higher than the target (95.15) percent. So the electrification ratio can reach 99.9 percent in 2019.

Besides the Sehen, the program to achieve the electrification ratio number is also through the construction of power plants by utilizing the local new energy and renewable energy. Another program is through the construction of village electricity by using PLN and Regional Development Budget (APBD).

FRISKI RIANA