Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia’s power plants capacity until June 2020 reaches 71 gigawatts (GW), Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif said at the PLN International Conference on Technology and Policy in Electric Power and Energy (ICT-PEP) 2020 here on Wednesday.

The figure is an increase of 1.3 GW compared to the end of 2019 of 69.7 GW.

From 2018 to June 2020, the development of power plants in the archipelagic country was focused on the use of renewable energy sources.

"The development of national power plants from 2018 to June 2020 is focused on developing renewable energy-sourced power plants, such as wind and solar power plants, while continuing to improve clean coal technology for the steam power plants," Arifin said.

Data obtained from the ministry show that until June 2020 the installed capacity of steam power plants in Indonesia is 35,220 megawatts (MW), gas/ gas and steam/gas engine power plants (20,537 MW), water/minirohydro/microhydro power plants (6,096 MW), diesel power plants (4,781 MW) and geothermal power plants (2,131 MW), and other renewable energy power plants (2,200 MW).

The ministry noted that renewable power plants contributed 14.69 percent or 10,467 MW of the total power plant capacity.

The increase in capacity in Sumatra was recorded at 14.7 GW from the previous 14.3 GW; Kalimantan from 4.0 GW to 4.4 GW; Sulawesi remains at 5.6 GW; Maluku - Papua from 1.4 GW to 1.5 GW; and Java-Bali-Nusa Tenggara from 44.4 GW to 44.8 GW.

Regarding the ownership, the national electricity company (PLN) controls 43,047 MW or 60.7 percent of the total installed generating capacity in the country; Independent Power Producers (IPP) have 18,816 MW or 26.5 percent; Operating Permits have 5,645 MW or 7.7 percent; Public Private Utilities have 3,583 MW or 5 percent; and the government has 55 MW or 0.1 percent.

The international conference is the second time held by PLN with under theme Making Indonesia 4.0 Through Development of National Green Energy Resources.

The event is a forum for discussions on innovations, and aims to get the latest research results in the electricity sector around the world.

Reporting by Indonesia Window