NTB.Suara.com – At the ASEAN-Indo-Pacific Forum (AIPF), PLN President Director Darmawan Prasodjo said that collaboration in the energy transition is an important key to balancing the energy trilemma, namely security, affordability and sustainability.
Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), Erick Thohir, said AIPF aims to connect the private and public sectors in the ASEAN and Indo-Pacific regions for stronger cooperation.
This forum will be a platform for ASEAN member countries and partners to engage in constructive discussions that produce concrete projects that ultimately increase collaboration in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We are gathered here to build our future that is more connected, more prosperous and more sustainable for the ASEAN and Indo-Pacific regions,” said Erick.
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As economic growth accelerates, demand for electricity supplies also increases. This is a common challenge, how to balance economic growth with energy security.
According to Darmawan, the energy transition is now increasingly possible because electricity rates from new renewable energy (EBT) are getting cheaper. However, the biggest obstacle to the energy transition is in the financing sector.
Considering the character of EBT generators which require large capital expenditure investments at the start, even though operational costs are relatively cheaper.
“To carry out this commitment, Indonesia cannot walk alone. Indeed, the challenges are very big, but the existence of a forum like AIPF gives us confidence, whatever the challenges, we will continue to move forward together,” he said.
Darmawan added that in the last 2 years, PLN has carried out various energy transition efforts. These include canceling plans to build 13.3 Gigawatt (GW) of coal plants, replacing 1.1 GW of coal plants with EBT, and determining a 51.6 percent increase in EBT plants.
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“We are in the process of designing and redesigning national electricity planning. With this new system, we understand that there is a mismatch between most EBT sources and load centers so we will build a green enabling super grid to connect them,” he explained.
He also said that currently PLN is in the process of designing and building an end-to-end smart grid. With this new network, PLN can increase the share of solar and wind energy generation from 5 GW to 28 GW.
The development of green enabling super grids and end-to-end smart grids is increasingly urgent to overcome the mismatch between NRE sources and electricity demand centers and accommodate the very massive penetration of variable EBT.
In the future, this system will be used to support the development of the ASEAN Power Grid. This system is projected to be able to connect transmission across countries in ASEAN, starting from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
“The ASEAN Power Grid is not just about electricity. However, this reflects the new strength of ASEAN. It reflects the change in ASEAN, which was previously fragmented, into a united ASEAN, for one goal, prosperity for the Southeast Asian region,” said Darmawan.
Canada Business Council CEO Goldy Hyder agrees that implementing the energy transition cannot simply ignore energy affordability and security. According to Hyder, energy transition steps also need to prioritize aspects of sustainability and prosperity of people in the world.
“The main principle in achieving a target cannot be ignoring energy security, sustainable principles and affordability. Steps need to be mapped out carefully and prioritize community welfare,” concluded Hyder.
