Indonesia needs US$28.5 million for electricity investment

Indonesia will need investments totaling US$28.5 billion over the next 10 years to build generators capable of producing another 24,500 MW, Antara reported on Wednesday.

The investments would also be needed to build 11,600 km-long transmission networks, president director of state electricity company PT PLN Eddie Widiono said when opening a national working conference of the Indonesian Association of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors [AKLI].

PLN needed at least US$2.5 billion in investments each year to build electricity generators and transmission networks, he said.

It was impossible for the government and PLN to make available the huge investments, he said.

He asked investors, provincial governments and district administrations to take part in the development of the electricity sector.

In line with the regional autonomy law which came into effect early last year, the provincial and district governments would hopefully take part in encouraging the development of the electricity sector, he said.

He said investments in the electricity sector had so far originated from the central government, offshore loans and the company.

Under the present system, the investments in the electricity sector were very costly, thus prompting PLN to switch to a market-oriented system, he said.

Since 1998, the installed capacity of electricity generators had grown by less than 1 per cent, while on the other hand the public demand for electrical power had increased by an average of 11 per cent per year, he said. (*)