Good Grief! One Decade Of Electricity Oversupply, Rp123 Trillion Money Wasted Wasted

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA – Economic observer from the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Abra Talattov criticized the electricity policy in Indonesia which was considered to be far from a high level of effectiveness.

According to him, over the past 10 years, Indonesia has produced more electricity than the absorption needs in the field.

"Our electricity sector is facing a challenging condition because there is a very high oversupply of electricity," he said in a virtual discussion on Thursday, June 9.

In his notes, the situation is quite serious considering the amount of excess stun power reaches a very high level.

“I calculated that in the last decade our average oversupply was 25 percent. So last year, for example, in 2021, the installed electricity capacity was 350,000 Gigawatt hour (GWh). Meanwhile, the consumption is only around 257,000 Gw or there is a surplus of 26.3 percent. This surplus pattern is relatively the same in the last 10 years," he said.

This is considered by Abra to have caused quite a serious problem in terms of the government's commitment to providing production funds through PLN.

"This will eventually have consequences for the state budget. So we calculated that with the 26 percent oversupply, there is more or less the potential waste of Rp. 123 trillion because there is too much supply wasted,” he said.

Abra also encourages the government to be more active in moving the manufacturing industry sector so that electricity usage can be more optimal.

"In the past years, both after the pandemic and before the pandemic, it turned out that the electricity consumption was still low. For example, in 2019, industrial electricity consumption was only 1.2 percent of the total electricity consumption in Indonesia," he said.

On this occasion, Abra also conveyed information that Indonesia's energy security is at 64. This level is much higher than the average energy security level in Asia, which is 58.

According to VOI records, the government through the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani has received permission from the DPR to increase the electricity subsidy budget this year from the previous Rp 56.5 trillion to Rp 59.6 trillion.