Jokowi on whirlwind trips to push power plant projects
Saturday, June 11 2016 - 03:40 AM WIB
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has been on whirlwind trips to regions in the country during the past several days to visit and inaugurate power plant projects and related infrastructure facilities as his administration struggles to realize an ambitious five-year program to develop a combined 35,000 MW power plants until 2019.
After visiting Bangka Belitung, Aceh, West Kalimantan and Gorontalo provinces last week, Jokowi on Friday travelled to Banten to lead a groundbreaking ceremony for the planned PLTU Lontar unit 4 coal-fired power plant with a capacity of 1x315 MW and transmission line projects. He also inaugurated the operation of a number sub-stations as well as transmission lines.
From Banten, Jokowi and First Lady Iriana travelled to Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara province, on special presidential aircraft RI-1, where he is scheduled to lead a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday for the Jeranjang Mobile Power Plant project with a capacity of 2x25 MW, located at Kebunaya village, Mataram district, West Lombok regency.
From West Nusa Tenggara, the president will then fly to Bali, where he will visit the 200 MW PLTDG Pesanggaran Bali diesel and gas-fired power plant in Benoa and a mini LNG terminal. Jokowi will return to Jakarta later in the evening.
A number of ministers including State Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Rini Soemarno, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, and President Director of state-owned electricity firm PT PLN Sofyan Basir would accompanied the president during the trip.
During the groundbreaking ceremony of the PLTU Lontar unit 4, Jokowi stressed the importance of accelerating the development of power plants and related infrastructure facilities to meet growing electricity demand in the country.
He said that the 35,000 MW program is not a target, but a ?necessity,? which if not realized, several regions will continue to suffer power blackouts.
Industry experts, however, have said that land acquisition has been a major obstacle in power plant development in the country. The huge funding requirement can also become a challenge as some foreign investors remain jittery in putting their money in the country.
In another bid to show his seriousness in pushing power plant projects in the country, Jokowi decided to witness and move the venue for the signing of financial closure of the giant 2x1,000 MW PLTU Batang coal-fired power plant to the presidential palace on Thursday. Funded primarily by Japanese and other foreign banks, the estimated US$4.21 billion power plant project, to developed by PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia, a consortium comprising of two Japanese firms and an Indonesian company, is expected to be completed in four years. The project has suffered years of delay due to land acquisition problem.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak