EBT-Based Electricity Capacity CONTINUES To Increase: PLN Gandeng International Institutions For Strengthening Smart Grids

NUSA DUA, BALI - PT PLN (Persero) collaborates with a number of international institutions to encourage smart grid strengthening in order to support the energy transition. The presence of a smart grid is very important in line with the continued increase in the capacity of renewable new energy-based power plants (EBT) which will become the main supplier of future electricity needs.

According to the Electric Power Supply Business Plan (RUPTL) of PLN 2021-2030, the EBT plant will dominate the additional power plant capacity of 20.9 Giga Watt (GW) or about 51.6 percent of the total new generating project.

PLN's Director of Transmission and System Planning, Evy Haryadi, explained that Indonesia is an archipelagic country that is geographically separated by the ocean. Currently, the PLN electricity network consists of 4 large systems and 16 small to medium systems with more than hundreds of isolated systems operating to channel energy to the community.

Each system has a different generating configuration, different transmission infrastructure and different load characteristics. With geographic characteristics, each island has different renewable energy potentials so that each system has different approaches and strategies for renewable energy integration.

For this reason, more flexible smart grid development is needed to integrate EBT-based electricity. As is known, EBT-based power plants have intermittent nature or depend on weather conditions. Power absorption can only be maximized when in supporting weather, such as the sun for solar power plants (PLTS) and wind at power plants (PLTB).

"Currently we are opening up space for collaboration in terms of investment, technology and other collaborations to create more flexible smart grids. A number of international institutions that have and will collaborate with us include the Consortium Global Power System Transformation (G-PST), USAID to Accenture," said Evy on the sidelines of the BNEF Summit agenda in Nusa Dua, Bali (12/11).

Gianfranco Casati, Chairman of Accenture Growth Markets, assesses that reliable electricity networks are the key to EBT growth in Indonesia. However, said Casati, the whole world is currently facing the same challenge in the availability of compatible electricity for intermittent EBT plants.

"The electricity line is actually an important factor for the growth of renewable energy. But this is not only in Indonesia, many other markets have faced or are facing exactly the same challenges," said Casati.

Casati said that in developing EBT in Indonesia, PLN needs to allocate at least USD 150 - 200 billion per year until 2030. However, this fund is not only for the priority of power plants. Instead, said Casati, one of the investments needs to be allocated, one of which is for smart grid development as an important component in the development of EBT in Indonesia.