Minister approves 2017-2026 RUPTL
Wednesday, April 5 2017 - 04:00 PM WIB
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan said on Wednesday he has signed the 2017-2026 electricity procurement business plan (better known as RUPTL) of state-owned electricity firm PT PLN.
?I have just signed the (2017-2026) RUPTL,? he said at the opening of the Coal Buyers and Producers meeting in Jakarta held by Petromindo Group.
He did not provide details about the new RUPTL, but said that under the new plan more power plants would be developed near energy sources, which are mostly located outside Java Island.
The 2017-2026 RUPTL is a revision to the earlier 2016-2025 RUPTL. PLN revises the RUPTL annually to accommodate new developments including economic growth.
Meanwhile, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that in approving the new RUPTL, the minister has issued Ministerial Decree No 1415 K/20/MEM/2017.
The statement said that in the new RUPTL, renewable energy is targeted to account for 22.5 percent of the country?s energy mix by 2025, up from 19.6 percent under the previous 2016-2025 RUPTL.
To help meet the target, PLN will accelerate the development of geothermal and hydro power plants, which have huge potential in the country.
The new RUPTL also envisages the optimization of local energy resources for power plants, use of more efficient technology in power generation to help reduce electricity selling price to end consumers.
The statement said that as part of efforts to maximize the potential of renewables, PLN will also increase electrification ratio in the eastern part of Indonesia, develop hybrid system in regions where the electricity is supplied by diesel-fired power plants operating less than 12 hours per day. Other strategy is developing smart grid and control system to increase penetration of renewables in the PLN system, and lastly using biofuel in existing diesel-fired power plants.
As per December 2016, the total capacity of operating power plants in the country was 51.860 MW, of which 6,003 MW is renewable power plants.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak