Minister indicates feed-in tariff of renewable-based electricity to be lowered
Thursday, December 22 2016 - 02:18 AM WIB
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan indicated that the government will lower the feed-in tariff of electricity produced by renewable-based power plants to make the electricity price affordable by the people.
He said in a statement issued on Wednesday that the renewable-based power plants must strive for efficient production of electricity among others by adopting the right technology. ?All renewable energy (projects) developed in Indonesia must be competitive against traditional sources of energy (such as oil, gas and coal),? he said at the energy and mining 2016 performance and 2017 outlook discussion forum on Wednesday as quoted by the statement.
He said that if the renewable-based power plants in Indonesia are not efficient and competitive, it would be difficult to realize the government?s target for renewable energy to account for 23 percent of the country?s energy mix in 2025.
Jonan said that feed-in tariff of renewable-based electricity in United Arab Emirates could reach as low as US$2.42 per kWh, while in Indonesia the lowest is $4.2 per kWh.
Jonan was quoted by Kontan as saying Thursday that a new feed-in tariff policy is scheduled to be introduced next year.
Meanwhile, Kontan quoted Director General of New and Renewable Energy at the ministry Rida Mulyana as saying that the new feed-in tariff policy will only be applied on new projects, while private power plant producers which have signed power purchase agreement with state-owned electricity firm PT PLN are allowed to maintain the current tariffs.
PLN has complained of the excessive feed-in tariffs of electricity produced by renewable-based power plants such as hydro power plant, geothermal, solar, and biomass, which are higher than PLN?s electricity selling price consumers.
Rida said that the government plans to introduce incentives to help promote the development of renewable energy in Indonesia.
Elsewhere, the ministry statement said that investment in the renewable-based energy sector in 2017 is expected to increase by 13 percent to US$1.56 billion from $1.37 billion this year.
The statement said that as per December of this year, renewable-based energy has accounted for 15 percent (or 8.7 GW) of the country?s total installed power plant capacity of 58 GW.
The statement said that installed capacity of geothermal power plants has reached 1,643.5 MW this year, and is targeted to increase to 1,858.5 MW next year.
Installed capacity of solar and micro hydro power plants have reached 282.55 MW this year, and targeted to increase to 291.71 MW next year
Installed capacity of bioenergy has reached 1,787.9 MW this year, and is targeted to reach 2,093 MW next year.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak