Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources Says Indonesia's Electrification Ratio Is 99.74 Percent

Illustration - Electrification in Indonesia. Farmers are active in fields with a Sutet tower background in the Tawang Sari area, Sukoharjo, Central Java. (Between/Mohammad Ayudha)

JAKARTA - The Coordinator of Electricity Engineering at the Directorate General of Electricity, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Heru Setiawan stated that Indonesia's electrification ratio nationally in 2023 will reach 99.74 percent.

"So there is still a 0.26 percent shortage of unelectriced households, most of which are scattered in remote areas," Heru said at the Inauguration and First Inauguration of the Electricity New Installation Assistance (BPBL) program in Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta Special Region, Saturday as quoted by Antara.

According to him, households that have not been electrified in remote areas or remote areas, especially frontier, outermost and underdeveloped areas (3T).

In addition, he said, there are still households living in rural and urban areas where there is already a PLN electricity network in front of the house, but they have not been able to connect electricity.

"This is because of the inability to pay for the cost of new installs of electricity, so you have to distribute or share directly with their neighbors," he said.

He said, one of the government's efforts to increase the electrification ratio and help people gain access to electricity is through the BPBL program which has the full support of Commission VII of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR).

"People who receive the BPBL program get three-point house electrical installations and one contact, inspection and installation testing along with the issuance of certificates such as operations, connection to PLN and the initial electricity token," he said.

In implementing the BPBL program, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has assigned PLN to carry out procurement and development activities, where prospective recipients are households with criteria registered in the integrated social welfare data (DTKS).

"Domiciled in the outermost, frontier and underdeveloped areas and deserves to receive the BPBL program based on the validation of village heads, village heads or level officials," he said.

He said that in 2022 the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources targets as many as 80,000 households to get free electricity connections on the BPBL program, and the realization at the end of 2022 managed to turn on beyond the target of 80,183 or 100.2 percent.

"In 2023, the BPBL program will be resumed by targeting 125,000 households spread across 32 provinces throughout Indonesia," he said.