PLN may not take part in the early phase of Indonesia’s clean electricity exports to Singapore, Energy and Mineral Resources minister Bahlil Lahadalia said on June 13. — AFP
JAKARTA: State-owned electricity company PLN is unlikely to be directly involved in the initial phase of planned solar power exports from Indonesia to Singapore.
An energy expert said the power provider, given its limited capital, should prioritise its responsibility for domestic power supply.
Indonesia and Singapore signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on June 13 to develop cross-border trade in low-carbon electricity and collaborate on carbon capture and storage, ministers from both countries said in Jakarta.
The electricity deal reaffirmed an earlier agreement to export solar power from Indonesia to Singapore, with a group of companies planning to build plants and grid infrastructure to generate and transmit the power.
PLN may not take part in the early phase of Indonesia’s clean electricity exports to Singapore, Energy and Mineral Resources minister Bahlil Lahadalia said on June 13 after he signed the MoU with Singapore’s minister-in-charge of energy and science & technology at Singapore’s Trade and Industry Ministry.
The government is banking on private-sector participation in the export program to allow PLN to focus on its electricity procurement business plan (RUPTL), which entails adding 69 gigawatts (GW) of additional power generating capacity and 80,000km of transmission lines by 2034.
Bahlil noted, however, that PLN’s involvement in clean power exports remains an option for future phases of the plan.
The government has set out a target for renewable energy exports to begin in 2028 and reach 3.4GW by 2035, backed by US$10bil to be invested in solar panel manufacturing and related activities in Riau Islands.
When asked whether the government would exclude PLN from solar power exports to Singapore, Eniya Listiani Dewi, the energy ministry’s new and renewable energy director-general, said the MoU was government-to-government in nature, and while PLN was expected to play a significant role, its specific involvement had not yet been discussed.
“We will discuss the green industrial zone, etc, too,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday when asked about the government’s timeline for revising or issuing new regulations to implement electricity exports, without providing further details.
PLN’s director of transmission and system planning, Evy Haryadi, did not immediately respond to the Jakarta Post’s request for comment.
To supply 3.4GW of renewable electricity to Singapore, Indonesia needs 18.7GW of solar panel production and 35.7 gigawatt-hours of battery energy storage system capacity, according to energy ministry estimates.
Fabby Tumiwa, executive director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform, said that it was “absolutely possible” for the projects to proceed without PLN’s involvement, both for the construction of solar power plants and transmission infrastructure.
“The minister himself has said it,” he noted, emphasising that PLN was still eligible to participate should it choose to.
Singapore plans to import three GW of solar power in the first phase and increase that to 12GW later.
“There is a remaining nine GW, which could be an opportunity (or further collaboration). If PLN wants in, they can partner with existing developers or join later through (its subsidiary) PLN Batam,” Fabby said. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
