Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia’s state-owned national electricity company (PLN) has spent 2.7 million kiloliters of fuel oil or equivalent to 16 trillion rupiahs (some 1.1 billion U.S. dollars) to power 5,200 diesel power plants in 2,130 locations, which most of them are located in remote and isolated areas.

This was conveyed by the PLN’s Mega Project Director Wiluyo Kusdwiharto in a discussion entitled Renewable Technology as Driver for Indonesia's De-Dieselization in Jakarta, Wednesday.

The PLN is targeting a gradual reduction in diesel power generation to reduce fuel consumption and increase the target for the new and renewable energy mix in Indonesia.

Through the de-dieselization program, the company plans to convert diesel power plants in three schemes, namely converting the diesel power into new and renewable energy, converting diesel power into gas, and converting diesel power into interconnection into the PLN network.

The program on diesel power conversion to new and renewable or hybrid energy has two schemes, namely diesel power will be converted into a hybrid between diesel power-solar power and batteries," explained Wiluyo.

He added that the conversion of diesel power to new and renewable energy was carried out especially in remote areas and did not have other alternative energy sources, such as hydropower.

In the first phase, the PLN plans to convert around 212 megawatts of diesel power  in 183 hybrid locations with solar power and battery energy storage system (BESS).

"We hope that the diesel power conversion program with a total of 499 megawatts to new and renewable energy will be able to reduce fuel consumption by 67,000 kiloliters, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 0.3 tons, and increase the energy mix by 0.15 percent," said Wiluyo.

Reporting by Indonesia Window