Govt issues renewable energy electricity prices guidelines

The government has issued a regulation setting benchmarks for electricity production costs in 13 regions to guide state owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) in its pricing of electricity generated by renewable energy sources.

Director General of Electricity and Energy Utilization at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry J. Purwono said benchmarks would be calculated separately for each region based on production costs of their respective conventional fuel powered plants.

?The benchmarks will be used as a guideline for PLN to determine the selling price of electricity generated by geothermal and other renewable energy sources,? Purwono said.

Previously, prices were calculated by PLN?s internal management.

According to the regulation, the highest production cost among the 13 regions is in West Kalimantan at Rp 2,312 (1US$= Rp 9,310) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for high voltage, Rp 2,546 per kWh for medium voltage and Rp 3,143 per kWh for low voltage.

Last month, the ministry issued a regulation on pricing for electricity produced from geothermal sources, where the price per kWh produced by geothermal plants with capacity above 55 megawatts (MW) is set at 80 percent of the average production cost of conventional fuel-powered plants, while the price for plants with capacity between 10 and 55 MW is set at 85 percent. (*)

No	Power System	High Voltage	Medium Voltage	Low Voltage
?	?	( in Rupiah per KWH)
1	Northern Sumatra (Aceh, North Sumatra)	1,891	1,984 - 2,158	2,306-2,603
2	Southern Sumatra (West Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu and Lampung)	565	667 - 1,164	860 - 1,433
3	Bangka Belitung	-	2,476	2,919
4	West Kalimantan	2,312	2,546	3,143
5	South and Central Kalimantan	1,148	1,611	1,998
6	East Kalimantan	1,732	1,965	2,260
7	North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo	974	1,676	2,063
8	South Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi	1,103	1,249	1,505
9	Maluku, North Maluku	-	2,320	2,919
10	Papua	-	2,526	3,192
11	West Nusa Tenggara	-	2,289	2,743
12	East Nusa Tenggara	-	2,433	3,072
13	Java-Madura-Bali	783	849 - 859	1,011 - 1,030
Source: Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry