Indonesia expects new electricity bill to be ready in April

Indonesia's new electricity bill is expected to be ready by April, Bambang Adi Winarso, vice chairman of electricity restructuring and secretariat in Indonesia's Ministry of Mines and Energy said Tuesday.

"It should be ready in two months' time," Winarso was quoted as saying by Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of Asia Power Conference in Singapore.

The Indonesian parliament is reviewing a draft of the new electricity bill aimed at strengthening the regulatory and legal framework for power investors, he said.

Indonesia needs more funds for power investment than the government and lending agencies can supply, to alleviate a looming power crisis in the main Java-Bali power system. The archipelago is already facing power shortages in 28 outlying regions.

Some 46% of the Indonesian populations have no access to electricity, Eddie Widiono, president director of state-owned electricity company PLN, said Tuesday at the same conference in Singapore.

Eddie Widiono also said Indonesia needs 18,800 megawatts of additional power capacity in 10 years time, 15,000 MW of which would be needed by the Java-Bali power system, the country's main grid. He pegged the overall investment required up to 2005 at 99 trillion rupiah (US$= Rp10,301). (*)