RI Has 18.7 GW Green Generation Projects Still In Planning Stage

JAKARTA - Director General of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Jisman P. Hutajulu revealed that until now Indonesia still has 12 GWs of power plants that have been completed, while the remaining 18.7 GW projects are still in the planning stage.

According to Jisman, this green energy-based new renewable electricity (EBT) development project is an opportunity for foreign investment to contribute through the Independent Power Producer (IPP) scheme or Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor.

"The EBT generation that can be developed consists of the 7 GW hydropower plant, 4.4 GW PLTS, 2.2 GW PLTP and the remaining 2.3 GW of other EBT plants. The total investment needs are needed at 28 billion US dollars," said Jisman quoted Wednesday, September 4.

According to Jisman, the government and PLN are currently discussing the target of developing a new EBT power plant which is expected to increase from 21 GW in the existing RUPTL to 33 GW in the new Draft RUPTL, thereby increasing the EBT mix from 52 percent to 76 percent.

Based on the normal projection, current electricity demand will increase to 72 GW in 2033.

This projection has increased through the addition of a significant new demand from the smelter and data center industry.

This has an impact on increasing demand in Java, which generally grows by 1 GW per year, changing to 3 GW per year.

"To fulfill this demand, we need to accelerate the development of massive EBT plants. We have great potential for EBT through solar, bioenergy, wind, and geothermal power with a total of 1,233 GW in Sumatra and 518 GW in Kalimantan," said Jisman.

Jisman admitted that the provision of EBT-based electricity still has problems in development because EBT sources are on the island of Sumatra, while the most electricity customers are outside Sumatra Island.

"Clean energy supply is currently still constrained by the existence of a mismatch between the potential utilization of renewable energy where renewable energy sources are located on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan with the Demand Center on the islands of Java, Sulawesi and Batam," concluded Jisman.