PLN Strengthens Electrifying Agriculture In Southern Sumatra

Erick Thohir (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - PT PLN (Persero) also supports national food security through the Electrifying Agriculture program by building an electricity system, including the replacement of fuel-based agricultural equipment to electricity, as well as the integration of distribution lines.

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said that in order to support national food security, SOEs will encourage agricultural ecosystems, support capital and build road infrastructure to facilitate the food distribution process. This step is expected to encourage economic transformation in the regions.

"The toll road project that the government is building is a new ecosystem driver, so that Lampung can support food security and higher economic growth than other provinces. Especially as a buffer for Java," explained Erick in his official statement, Saturday, August 6.

Erick reminded that the potential of Southern Sumatra is still very large. Especially after the construction of a toll road connecting it with the surrounding areas. He hopes this condition can be maximized soon. This is because the construction of toll road infrastructure from Lampung to South Sumatra has increased Sumatra-Java traffic by about 40 percent. The growth of logistics transportation is even up to 140 percent.

"This is a captive market, if from the 20 million vehicles around 1 percent stay in Bakauheni for a day or two, it will encourage new jobs," said Erick.

On the same occasion, the President Director of PLN, Darmawan Prasodjo, said he was ready to support Southern Sumatra as the new economic epicenter. Not only providing reliable electricity supply, PLN also synergizes with other SOEs that are committed to providing modern, cheap and environmentally friendly agricultural systems.

PLN has designed an integrated electricity system with the toll road development plan to support the agricultural sector in Sumatra.

“To strengthen the electrical system, a 275 kV transmission from Aceh to Lampung is also being built. Then from the toll road, exits were built, which we saw there were new PLN customers added. It includes agriculture, plantations, ponds and others," explained Darmawan.

With the Electrifying Agriculture program, PLN is ready to support Southern Sumatra as an integrated agglomeration area for food and development throughout Sumatra.

This program will encourage the agricultural sector to become more advanced and modern by replacing expensive and environmentally damaging fossil fuel-based agricultural machinery (alsintan) with electricity-based machinery that is cheap and environmentally friendly.

"If there is a rice mill to buy 1 liter of diesel, the price is Rp. 16 thousand, it is equivalent to 1.2 kWh of electricity which costs only Rp. 1,800. So if you switch from diesel fuel to electricity, you reduce costs by about 80 percent. That's why we do Electriying Agriculture in support food security," said Darmawan.

PLN is committed to expanding this program in regions throughout Indonesia. Especially in Southern Sumatra, there are 12,482 Electrifying Agriculture customers who already use electricity to increase their productivity. The total electricity demand from these customers reaches 381 megavolt amperes (MVA) until June 2022.

Not stopping there, Darmawan explained, PLN has also mapped the potential of the Electrifying Agriculture program, namely in oil palm plantations, chicken farms, shrimp ponds, sugarcane processing, tapioca factories, to pump wells for irrigation.

"We have calculated that the total electricity needs of potential customers for Electrifying Agriculture is around 6.2 MVA," explained Darmawan.

He ensured that PLN was ready to secure all of its customers' electricity needs because currently the electricity reserves in South Sumatra are abundant. PLN noted that the capacity in the South Sumatra electricity system reached 5,283 megawatts (MW) with a peak load of 4,001 MW, so there is a power reserve of 1,282 MW.

"We hope that this support can support national food security, and bring prosperity to farmers," he concluded.