TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In its electricity supply business plan draft for 2018-2017, state power company PLN proposed for just 14,000 MW of clean energy power plants' construction by 2027. This target is reduced from the previous plan of 21,500 MW.
PLN estimated that electricity use will only grow 6.1 percent, down from the 2017-2026 RUPTL's 8.3 percent. PLN's New Renewable Energy Division chief Tohari Hadiat said the company needs to significantly cut its power generation target because the average electricity consumption forecast per year will likely decline.
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"If we build them and there is no demand, it will become inefficient," Tohari told Tempo on Monday, February 26. He didn’t say what the reduction target is.
PLN's director of strategic procurement Supangkat Iwan Santoso said that if the target is not revised, PLN's electricity surplus could reach more than 30 percent, even reaching more than 80% in several grids.
"This reserve will risk PLN's finances because there will be unused electricity," Iwan said.
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Meanwhile, the Institute for Essential Service Reform's executive director Fabby Tumiwa said that this policy to reduce clean energy surplus is incorrect. According to Fabby, the cause of PLN's production burden is actually the company's steam power plants, which is fueled by coal. In the last two years, coal prices have increased thus inflating production cost.
Fabby argued that PLN actually has a chance to lower electricity tariff through the use of clean energy. He said that the potential cost-savings from the development of solar and wind power plants reach up to 1,000 MW.
ROBBY IRFANY