Electricity Rates Did Not Increase, Existing Home Usage Increased 4.7 Percent

JAKARTA - Many people have complained that electricity bills have increased in the last three months during the COVID-19 outbreak. Some even think that PLN has secretly increased electricity rates or cross-subsidized power users for 450 VA and 900 VA. However, that is not the case.

General Manager of PLN's Jakarta Raya Main Unit, Doddy B. Pangaribuan, understands that there are complaints about the alleged increase in electricity due to the spiritual atmosphere of the sluggish economy due to the COVID-19 outbreak, especially in the Capital City.

From the complaint, Doddy admitted that PLN DKI officials evaluated the electricity consumption of customers one by one. In DKI, almost 97 percent of complaints can be answered. This means that the complaint can be explained and understood.

"For the assumption that electricity rates are rising, I reiterate that electricity rates have not increased. Moreover, electricity rates have not increased since 2017," said Doddy in a virtual discussion with journalists, Wednesday, June 10.

In fact, said Doddy, the swelling electricity was calculated from the number of monthly customer usage. If you use electricity at home more frequently, automatically the costs you charge will also increase.

Doddy then gave an overview of the electricity consumption survey in Jakarta in May 2020. The survey was conducted on 50 samples of customers from various sectors.

"We match this with last year's May, 2019, with the same day period," he said.

As a result, electricity consumption from the beginning of May in the household sector increased by 4.73 percent. In contrast, electricity consumption in the business sector fell 11.38 percent, the social sector fell 9.52 percent, the government fell 6.9 percent, and the industrial sector fell 15.8 percent.

In May, Jakarta is implementing the status of Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB). People do more activities, study, and work from home.

During the PSBB, a number of companies and shopping centers also closed. Some of them even asked for a downgrade to unsubscribe.

"This may be the reason why many of our customers are quite surprised to receive electricity bills," said Doddy.

Furthermore, for consumers who still have doubts about PLN data processing, said Doddy, PLN opens a communication room at the PLN 123 contact center. "Then we also open channels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others," he concluded.