Indonesia to Tackle Power Crisis

Indonesia to tackle power crisis

JAKARTA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed Friday to begin tackling a national power supply crisis next year through projects to develop alternative energy and expand electricity capacity by more than 30 percent.

Power suppliers were unable to meet higher demand for electricity in Indonesia, driven by population and economic growth, and outages have hit large parts of the country in recent years.

“Starting by the middle of 2009, the power crisis on Java and Bali will begin to be overcome,” said Yudhoyono in his annual State of the Union address to Parliament.

He outlined plans to boost power capacity by a quarter – or 10, 000 megawatts – to the national power grid by 2011. That will be produced with new and renewable energy such as micro-hydro power, biofuel and geothermal, Yudhoyono said, without giving details.

The country’s 29,700 megawatts of electricity are largely dependent on oil and coal, making it highly vulnerable to soaring oil prices, Yudhoyono said.

Straddling a series of fault lines, Indonesia is believed to have the world’s largest geothermal resource base, with the potential to provide 21,000 megawatts, more than half its energy needs.

Construction of the new power plants will be opened to public tender to create “the widest possible opportunity to private companies to participate in the construction and operation,” he said.

In the past two years, Indonesia’ produced one million barrels of oil a day, the lowest level in 30 years. In May this year, the Indonesian government said it will quit the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries because of declining oil reserves and investments.

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