Three New Ministerial Regulations on Electricity: Towards Equitable and Affordable Power

Increasing Indonesia's electrification rate remains one of the most important targets of the Joko Widodo Administration.  The reason underlying this push is simple: as of 2015, the country’s electrification ratio had reached only 88.3%, the lowest of all ASEAN member states. Fortunately however, in 2016 the country’s electrification ratio improved to a figure of 91.16%. With this achievement now under its belt, the current government has set new targets of an electrification ratio of 92.75% by the end of 2017[1], 90% of the population by the year 2020 and, ultimately, a 100% ratio by 2024.In order to achieve these ambitious goals, Indonesia’s state electricity company (PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara –“PLN”) is planning to install some 46,000 km of power-transmission lines, as well as some 103,000 MVA of electrical relay stations, across 1,000 locations dotted throughout the country. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources(“Ministry”), Ignasius Jonan, claims that the country will need an additional 15,000 MW in electricity generating capability by 2019, which chimes with the government’s ambitious project to increase the current network by 35,000 MW by the same year.[2]In a bid to realize this ambitious electrification target, as well as to guarantee the fair and affordable distribution of power, the Ministry has issued three electricity-related new regulations , specifically: