Indonesian Energy Minister takes part in IEA webinar series on the role of smart grids in modernising the power sector
Wide range of stakeholders from Indonesia and beyond participate in events that underscore deepening partnership between Indonesia and IEA
As part of its deepening partnership with Indonesia, the International Energy Agency recently held a series of webinars and on smart grids and power sector interconnection with Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) and national electricity utility PLN.
Participants included Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif and IEA Director of Energy Markets and Security Keisuke Sadamori. The webinars initiated an important dialogue across industry, academia, government and international institutions on how smarter grids can be utilised as an enabling tool for in Indonesia’s energy transition.
“We were pleased to convene this important series of events with Minister Tasrif and MEMR colleagues, which shows Indonesia’s commitment to modernising the power sector for a cleaner and more secure future, as well as the IEA’s commitment to scale up real-world clean energy transition implementation work in Indonesia,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director. “I look forward to this work continuing to evolve and grow as we seek to rapidly enhance engagement with Indonesia in 2021.”
Expected to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2045, Indonesia is critical for global clean energy transitions. The country is a key part of the IEA family and an important focus for the Agency’s work and collaboration. Indonesia is experiencing rapid growth in its economy and energy demand. To meet this, the government has a substantial pipeline of new planned coal-fired power plants and a target of 23% renewable energy in the energy mix by 2025. Indonesia has achieved near universal electricity access, overcoming the challenges of its archipelagic geography. Nevertheless, in order to fully modernise its electricity system and deliver cost-effective, reliable and lower-carbon power to all Indonesians, the country’s electricity sector must undergo a fundamental transformation.
As part of this transformation, the government of Indonesia has mandated PLN to deploy smart grids through its 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan. The recent webinar series consisted of three events focusing respectively on: building consensus around what smart grids are for Indonesia; a deep dive into transmission development; and different applications and implementations of smart grids. The second and third events each gathered over 300 stakeholders from Indonesia, IEA member countries and international organisations.
During the webinars, speakers from the IEA and key IEA partners, both in government and the private sector, discussed their technical and policy-relevant experiences around deploying smart grids. Indonesian policy makers and senior officials, including Minister Tasrif, described Indonesia’s priorities, constraints, targets and progress.
In particular, speakers and participants highlighted the need for specific implementation plans that take into account the diverse contexts of both the main interconnected islands and more remote areas of Indonesia. Speakers and participants left with a greater understanding of the importance of the need for a holistic approach to smart grids and grid enhancement that includes technological improvement, procedural and institutional strengthening, and greater integration across generation, transmission and distribution systems.
The IEA will continue to support the efforts of the MEMR and PLN to enhance Indonesia’s power system in the context of the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and clean energy transitions, as requested by MEMR counterparts. In doing so, the IEA will also continue to collaborate with a broad set of stakeholders, providing detailed analysis on flexibility needs, grid investments, process enhancement and policy strengthening. These efforts will support the ongoing work of the government of Indonesia in creating a modern power sector.
The webinars and related work are part of the IEA’s Clean Energy Transitions in Emerging Economies programme, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
The Clean Energy Transitions in Emerging Economies programme has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952363
