State Electricity Company to Provide Power in 433 Remote Villages
CEO of State-owned electricity company PLN
As part of the efforts to provide electricity in 433 remote villages across the country, state-owned electricity company PLN has announced it is developing a program called “Bringing the Light Live the Dream”.
According to CEO of the PLN Zulkifli Zaini, the budget of this program is allocated for the construction of electric energy charging stations amounting to Rp735 billion and the procurement of electricity tubes amounting to Rp525 billion.
The budget is derived from the Village Funds or the regional government budget, he said.
“Funding is also very much needed for the mobilization of personnel of the National Defense Forces (TNI) to support the program,” said Zulkifli.
Zulkifli also pointed out the difficulties in running this program includes the difficult terrain, infrastructure, and security.
“In terms of location, tracking down coordinates is not easy. We have used pattern recognition, spatial optimization, technology, so that we can find the locations of those 433 villages that have been identified by Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources precisely,” he said.
Regarding the availability of energy in the villages, Zulkifli said that the villages are remotely located so the PLN needs to use available energy sources there.
The PLN, he added, should consider the most appropriate system for providing power in remote villages, the electrical power needed by taking into account the aspects of location, population, number of houses, and so on, adding that the PLN should build an electric energy charging station for the remote villages sourced from local power plant in each villages.
“With the full support of several ministries, the PLN is able to create a comprehensive program to provide power in 433 villages in the provinces of Papua West Papua, Maluku and in Nusa Tenggara,” he said, adding that the program will be completed before the end of this year or on 17 August 2020 at the soonest, coinciding with Indonesia’s Independence Day.
Regarding the quality of the electricity, Zulkifli said that no obstacles are expected thanks to the construction of 35,000 megawatts power plants in the past few years.
“What the PLN needs to do is to build electricity transmissions and substations in order to deliver 35,000 megawatt electricity. So, our challenge is to build transmission, substations, distribution,” Zulkifli added.
The PLN’s current and future focus, Zulkifli continued, is to improve reliability of existing electricity supply and how to satisfy customers with the company’s services.
Related to electricity consumption, Zulkifli said that the PLN is still counting the amount of power usage in households, malls, industries, hotels, and others.
“The electricity usage in the household is rising, but the usage at malls, hotels, industries, and others are declining. The PLN will later deliver more detailed figures,” Zulkifli said. (FID / EN)
Translated by: Estu Widyamurti
Reviewed by: M. Ersan Pamungkas
