PLN to boost development of renewable energy power plants
Friday, April 4 2014 - 01:00 AM WIB
Ngurah Andyana, Director for Java, Bali, and Sumatra operations at PLN, was quoted by Kontan daily Friday as saying that the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) will soon issue a new regulation for the acceleration of the development of mini power plants with capacity of below 10 MW. He added that PLN is now focusing on North Sumatra, which has huge potential of renewable energy sources for small-scale power plants.
He said that PLN has set a target to develop a total of 2,500 MW of mini hydro, geothermal and biomass power plants until 2016, of which only 300 MW has been realized by the first quarter of 2014.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Sofyan, Head of the Renewable Energy Division at PLN, said that the company together with the Directorate General of Electricity and Directorate General of New and Renewable Energy Sources will soon formulate guidelines for private investment in renewables-based power plants which will also cover the mechanism of the distribution of the electricity from the private investors to PLN.
He said that PLN has received plenty of proposals from private investors planning to develop power plants based on renewable energy sources. ?We have received many proposals totaling up to 1,500 MW,? he said. (*)