Viriya P. Singgih, Jakarta – State electricity firm PLN is still struggling to boost its electricity sales volume amid mounting financial burdens it has to face to support the government's 35,000-megawatt (MW) program.

PLN's electricity sales only climbed by 3.1 percent year-on-year to 163.6 terawatt hours (TWh) within the first nine months of 2017, still below the annual growth of 5.94 percent in the same period last year.

"As of September, PLN's sales volume had reached 163.6 TWh compared to 158.6 TWh in the same month last year," the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's spokesman Dadan Kusdiana said recently.

In its latest electricity procurement business plan (RUPTL), PLN has factored in the construction of the new power plants based on the assumption that the electricity sales volume would grow by 8.3 percent annually.

The RUPTL includes the plan to generate 35,000 MW of electricity by 2019, 10,000 MW of which to be built by PLN, while the rest will be developed by independent power producers.

In addition to the 10,000 MW, PLN also plans to build 46,760 kilometers worth of transmission circuits and 1,375 substation units equivalent to 108,789 mega volt amperes (MVA) by 2019.

It is estimated that PLN must disburse Rp 585 trillion for the development of these infrastructures. However, as of August, PLN had only been able to seal financing commitments worth Rp 117 trillion

As of June, PLN's liabilities reached Rp 420.5 trillion, a 9.8 percent increase year-on-year. Meanwhile, its net profits plunged 71.7 percent to Rp 2.24 trillion.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/10/15/pln-still-struggling-to-boost-electricity-sales.html