A woman walks by an inoperative solar power plant in Eliasa village, Selaru Island, Southwest Maluku regency, Maluku, Thursday (24/8). The power plant, which was provided as energy assistance for the outer island in 2013, was operational for less than a month before it broke down, as the aid program did not include training local residents how to maintain the facility.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Indonesia is overshadowed by an energy crisis as the gap in supply and demand, especially in oil and gas, continues to widen, while the utilization of renewable energy is not yet optimal. If left unchecked, this will affect the country’s energy security and sustainability.
Even in a number of areas known to be energy producers are frequently having a problem meeting their energy needs, especially for electricity.
In Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, power outages often occur without notice from state-owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN). The blackouts are ironic, because East Kalimantan is one of the country’s major producers of energy, such as coal, oil and gas.
The installation capacity of power plants in Indonesia is currently 60,100 megawatts (MW). About 55.6 percent of the plants use coal as fuel.
In addition to East Kalimantan, the power supply crisis also occurs in remote areas. Based on the observation of Kompas through Sunday (17/9), hundreds of residents in Long Berang village, Mentarang Hulu subdistrict, Malinau district, North Kalimantan, do not enjoy electricity supplied by PLN. A number of residents still rely on portable generators to light their homes.
Ngeliawan village on Wuriaru Island, Southeast Maluku Regency, Maluku, is also without power. The children in the village of about 70 houses use kerosene lamps to study at home at night. Their time for studying is limited because the stock of fuel for the lamps is also limited. The price of kerosene, which is about Rp 20,000 per liter, is a high cost for the villagers.
Indonesia has imported oil since 2004, as domestic production can no longer meet demands.
"I call it a crisis. We don’t need to see the people queuing to buy fuel. As long as the need is greater than the production in the country and we have to import to close the gap, it can be called a crisis," the director of the Center for Energy Studies at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University, Deendarlianto, said when contacted from Jakarta last Saturday.
According to data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the demand for oil and natural gas in 2020 is estimated to be 2.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD). This is higher than the production capacity of only about 2.2 million BOEPD. The deficit will widen further by 2030, when the oil and gas demand is expected to reach 3.95 million BOEPD, while the domestic supply capacity will only be 1.08 million BOEPD.
Deendarlianto said that although the deficit in the domestic oil supply continued to increase from year to year, the government had yet to declare the energy situation a state of crisis. This will have an impact on the development of renewable energy in Indonesia, which remains relatively slow. The country’s total renewable energy potential is currently 440,000 MW, but only about 8,200 MW is being utilized.
According to Indonesian Petroleum Engineering Association (IATMI) chairman Pri Agung Rakhmanto, Indonesia has to import to meet the energy shortage. Imports cannot be avoided because Indonesia is unable to attract investors to the energy sector, particularly in fossil energy.
"Indonesia has imported oil since 2004. At present, LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] imports are currently about 5 million tons per year, or about two-thirds of the national demand. Indonesia may have to import liquefied natural gas [LNG] beginning in 2019. If viewed from the perspective of energy management, as a country which is rich in oil and gas and other energy sources, I believe this condition can be called as a crisis in energy management," said Pri Agung.
Regions
The power outages in regions disrupt business activities and public services. In Palembang, South Sumatra, there is a power outage once a week that lasts from two to three hours. According to Budianto, the secretary of the Ilir Timur I district in Palembang, when there is power outage, the public services his office provides have to be stopped, because all public services have been digitized. "When the power goes out, we do not dare to turn on electronic devices using the generator set because the current is unstable. Electronic devices can be damaged, " he said.
The PLN area distribution service manager in South Sumatra, Jambi and Bengkulu, Nanang Prasetyo, said that most power outages were caused by non-technical problems, such as substations being damaged by falling tree branches or other objects.
According to him, the electricity capacity in Palembang is actually adequate at reaching 641 MW, far higher than the peak load of only 480 MW.
In Balikpapan, people complained about power cuts that could last several hours. "The outages occurred several times on Saturday, when most people use the time to clean house," said Cahyanti, 40, a resident of Taman Bukit Sari, Graha Indah village, North Balikpapan subdistrict.
Government efforts
As parts of its efforts to cope with the energy supply deficit, the government recently revised the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister’s Regulation No. 8/2012 on the Gross Split Contract for oil and gas. This scheme replaces the profit-sharing model, which was based on a cost recovery scheme.
"This revision is to improve and revitalize the upstream oil and gas investment climate in Indonesia. The falling investment in oil and gas exploration is happening not only in Indonesia, but also around the world, " deputy minister Acandra Tahar said last week in Jakarta.
In the renewable energy sector, this year the government expects to sign at least 70 power purchase agreements. As of September 2017, 60 power purchase contracts had been signed with a total capacity of 720 MW.
The government aims to increase the renewable energy supply by 3,864 MW by the end of this year. In the national energy mix by 2025, the target of renewable energy contribution is expected to reach 23 percent, or 45,000 MW.
