Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The Indonesian government has approved the 2021-2030 Electric Power Supply Business Plan by the National State-owned Electricity Company (PLN) which increases the portion of renewable energy power plants to 51.6 percent.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif said the roadmap could answer all problems in the electricity sector, especially in the energy transition policy, which becomes the government's focus.

"This plan is greener because the addition of renewable energy plants is 51.6 percent larger than that of fossil power plants which is only 48.4 percent," Arifin told a webinar here on Tuesday (Oct. 5).

Of the target for additional power plants of 40.6 gigawatts (GW), renewable energy generating capacity reaches 20.9 GW and fossil energy generating capacity is only 19.6 GW, he noted.

Arifin said the government would encourage the state-owned company to focus more on investing in the development and strengthening of the electricity distribution system, as well as improving consumer services.

He pointed out that accelerating the addition of 40.6 GW of power plants over the next 10 years would provide opportunities for private power companies or Independent Power Producers (IPP) in developing renewable energy-based plants.

"The construction of new steam power plants is no longer an option, except for those that are currently committed and in the construction stage. Therefore, it also opens up opportunities and large enough space for the development of new and renewable energy," said Arifin.

Currently, the government is pushing to increase the capacity of solar power plants considering that the components’ prices are more and more affordable, with faster construction period.

With this effort the new and renewable energy mix target of 23 percent is expected to be achieved by 2025.

In addition, co-firing technology with biomass that pays attention to the environment is also a pace to reach the national target.

Reporting by Indonesia Window