In Front Of President Jokowi, PLN Reveals Hydropower Development Strategy In Indonesia

PLN President Director, Darmawan Prasodjo, gave an explanation to President Jokowi. (IST)

JAKARTA - The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi) visited the PT PLN (Persero) booth in the 2023 World Hydropower Congress (WHC) series in Nusa Dua Bali on Tuesday (31/10). On this occasion, the President Director of PLN, Darmawan Prasodjo, explained the company's strategy in developing Hydropower Power Plants (PLTA/hydropower) in the country.

"As an archipelagic country, Indonesia stores a variety of new renewable energy sources. Especially for water energy, as one of the largest energy sources, water has potential that can be utilized up to 95 GW, but only 5.8 GW has been utilized," said Darmawan in a written statement received by VOI.

According to him, this is due to challenges in the form of mismatches between large-scale new renewable energy sources, such as water in remote areas and far from the epicenter of electricity needs located in other regions.

Therefore, Darmawan said, PLN under the direction of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) is preparing an Accelerated Renewable Energy Development (ARED) strategy which is able to increase the capacity of new and renewable energy generation by 75 percent by 2040.

"With ARED, the use of water as a source of electrical energy in Indonesia will be able to increase the use of water to 25.3 GW in 2040 or an increase of 185 percent compared to Business as Usual (BaU)," said Darmawan.

In line with this, President Joko Widodo in his speech said that global warming is a real threat to the whole world. In this case, the Government of Indonesia is fully committed to accelerating the energy transition, through the addition of New and Renewable Energy (EBT) on a large scale.

According to him, the total potential for EBT in the country is estimated to reach 3,600 Gigawatts (GW), both from the sun, wind, geothermal, waves, bio-energy and hydropower. Especially for hydro, Indonesia has more than 4,400 potential rivers, of which 128 are large rivers.

"Such as the Mamberamo river which has the potential of 24 thousand Megawatts (MW) in Papua. Then the Kayan River in North Kalimantan has the potential of 13 thousand MW which will later be used as a source of electricity for Green Industrial Park in Kalimantan. This is a huge potential that we can take advantage of for the future of the earth and the future of the next generation," he explained.

However, President Jokowi emphasized that Indonesia also faces various challenges to develop this great hydro potential, one of which is related to the location of hydro resources whose position is far from the center of electricity demand. Thus, the Indonesian government has made a blue print of accelerating transmission lines that connect electricity from hydropower locations that are brought to the center of economic growth and industrial growth centers.

In addition, challenges also arise in terms of investment and technology transfer. "This requires a lot of investment and requires collaboration with all the hydro ecosystem powers in the world," added President Jokowi on the sidelines of a visit to the PLN booth.