President Director Of PLN Inspection Of SPKLU Homecoming Routes, Ensure 1,299 Units Throughout Indonesia Are Alert To Serve Electric Car Users

The President Director of PLN, Darmawan Prasodjo (fiveth from the right) accompanied by his staff to charge electric vehicles at the SPKLU rest area of the Jakarta - Merak toll road km 13.5 Tangerang, Banten.

JAKARTA - President Director of PT PLN (Persero) Darmawan Prasodjo ensured the readiness of the Public Electric Vehicle Charging Station (SPKLU) service which has been fully operational throughout Indonesia. In several locations of the Lebaran 2024 homecoming route, direct inspections were even carried out.

Met by media crews at the Jakarta - Merak toll rest area km 13.5 Tangerang, Banten on Monday, (08/04) Darmawan said the SPKLU was already available in all rest areas on the Trans Sumatra-Java toll road. Previously, Darmawan had also conducted a review at the SPKLU rest area of the 656B Saradan toll road, Madiun Regency, East Java on Saturday, (06/04).

"In previous years' homecoming, SPKLU only existed in certain rest areas. Now, every rest area there is SPKLU that is ready to serve the needs of travelers, this is proof that PLN is very ready to support the transfer of travelers from fossil energy-based vehicles to electrical energy," said Darmawan.

Darmawan added that at this year's homecoming, PLN added 175 SPKLU units spread across various points of the Java and Sumatra homecoming routes. So nationally, there are 1,299 SPKLU units in 879 locations that are ready to serve electric car users throughout Indonesia.

The location of the SPKLU distribution has also been carefully mapped, on the Trans Sumatra-Java toll road, for example, the average distance between SPKLU is about 23 km. The capacity of the smallest electric car battery is 39 kWh with a distance of 300 km, so there is no need to worry for long trips.

"PLN has prepared SPKLUs on homecoming routes from Merak to Banyuwangi and Bakauheni to Palembang with an average distance between SPKLUs of about 23 km, so it is very safe to go home using electric vehicles," he said.

Not only focusing on four-wheeled electric vehicles, PLN has also prepared 1,839 units of Public Electric Vehicle Battery Exchange Station (SPBKLU) and 9,771 units of General Electric Charging Station (SPLU) for two-wheeled electric vehicles.

"For SPKLU locations, SPBKLU and SPLU can be accessed through the Electric Vehicle menu on the PLN Mobile Application. And everything is for the convenience of EV users to drive comfortably," added Darmawan.

Darmawan added, up to D-3 Idul Fitri 1445 H, transactions using SPKLU by the community increased significantly. PLN noted that the number of transactions at SPKLU jumped five times during the 2024 homecoming period compared to the same period in 2023 from 906 transactions to more than 4,500 transactions.

Meanwhile, in terms of power consumption, in the period of homecoming flow in 2024 (up to D-3 Eid) this even increased 5.2 times compared to the period of homecoming flow in 2023, from 17 MWh to more than 92.4 MWh.

Darmawan continued, his party continues to innovate in improving services to the community. One of these is realized by adding several features to the PLN Mobile Application, so that people who use electric vehicles are more comfortable in traveling long distances.

"For people who want to go home using electric vehicles now, there is no need to hesitate anymore. PLN has prepared an electric car travel management with the Trip Planner feature in the PLN Mobile application," said Darmawan.

Through the Trip Planner menu, travelers can set the departure point and destination point. Automatically, PLN Mobile will provide recommendations for SPKLU points that are traversed on the route.

In addition, PLN also added the SPKLU hotline pop up button feature in the latest version of the PLN Mobile application which will directly connect customers to the SPKLU customer service Whatsapp number. The hotline can also be accessed via PLN 123 Contact Center and Whatsapp number 08-777-11-1223.

"If people need emergency charging assistance or other assistance related to SPKLU, they can press SPKLU hotline pop-up on the PLN Mobile application. Through this SPKLU special service, we have also alerted 3 mobile SPKLU units that will comb the Jakarta - Cileunyi toll road and the Central Java - East Java toll road," he concluded.