REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Vice-President Jusuf Kalla stated that the national electricity reserve should be 30 percent of the existing capacity, considering the country's growth of population and economy.

"Our ideal electricity reserve should be 30 percent. Now we have 54,000 megawatts, so we must have at least 15,000 megawatts as reserve to prevent power outages," Jusuf Kalla said.

The current availability of electricity reserve is only 10 percent and that causes power outages in a number or areas.

The Vice-President has recommended the acceleration of the construction of a 35,000-megawatt power plant by the state-owned electricity company, PLN, through the Independent Power Producer (IPP) mechanism that involves private players.

"PLN can provide only about Rp400 to Rp500 trillion (about US$ 30,4 billion-US$ 38 billion) for constructing a 35,000-megawatt plant. We need more private players to make electricity widely available," Jusuf Kalla noted.

With that much funding, PLN is expected to construct a 10,000-megawatt power plant, while the construction of a section to generate 25,000-megawatt will be given to the private sector through IPP.

He pointed out Government Regulation No. 3 of 2015 on reference price, which will not require developers who want to sell electricity to PLN to renegotiate, as electricity price will already be determined.

"Negotiations for price used to take one to two years. With this regulation, we hope the negotiation process will not take more than a month," Kalla remarked.

The Vice-President also encouraged PLN to focus on transmission and distribution companies to supply electricity from power plants owned by IPP developers.

To support the economic growth target of 6.5 percent per year, the government will develop a 35,000-megawatt power plant program, which will be implemented within the next five years.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika