VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Fulfillment of electricity needs is highly dependent on the availability of energy needed so that the synergy of fossil energy use, such as coal, natural gas and petroleum with renewable energy and new energy is increasingly important to ensure the sustainable growth of the Indonesian electricity sector. Related to the National Electricity Day October 27, Chairperson of the Indonesian Electricity Society (MKI), Supangkat Iwan Santoso said that the sustainability of the electricity sector is one of the main drivers of national economy and development. Currently, Indonesia's national electrification ratio only reaches 97.15%. Around 3% of electrification ratio needs to be pursued. This means that there are still around 7.5 million Indonesians who cannot enjoy electricity.

Meanwhile, addressing the national electricity problem, the government of Indonesia is trying to push electricity prices to be affordable and evenly distributed throughout Indonesia. Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ignasius Jonan when opening the 73rd National Electricity Day (HLN) program on Tuesday (October 23) at the Power - Gen Asia 2018 program, emphasized that electricity use must be evenly distributed at affordable prices.

Since 2014, the government has made the infrastructure design run with a 35,000 Megawatt (MW) project. This is aimed at reaching the national electricity equity and the most important impact is the effect of national economic resurgence. Towards the end of 2018, the government will decide to postpone a number of 35,000 megawatt (MW) electricity projects. But this does not mean that the project is stopped nationally. Minister Jonan emphasized that the postponement of several projects that would originally be carried out in 2019 to 2021, and even to 2026. Because, this is aimed at controlling imports in a bid to save the rupiah exchange rate against the unstable United States dollar. This postponement is a smart step to prioritize more macro-economic matters so that the economic stability of development that has been announced the government can be fulfilled.

What the government has done should also be supported by the private sectors. If the government cannot fulfill all of them, the private sectors need also to play their major role to address the shortcomings. Adequacy of electricity supply will ensure that the industry continues to grow, harmonize between urban and remote areas, such as access to communication, better lighting and transportation and to increase state revenues. But more importantly, electricity must be available to reach people who have not received electricity and is affordable for all of them throughout Indonesia.

That’s Commentary.