Slow progress on Indonesia's 10 GW Fast-Track Program

Indonesia's second Fast-Track Program (FTP-2), aiming at accelerating the development of at least 10,000 MW of new power capacity, is progressing slowly due to environmental and financing considerations. The programme includes 76 power plants with a combined capacity of 17,918 MW. State-owned national power utility PT PLN plans to develop 17 power plants (5,749 MW), while the private sector plans to build 59 plants with a cumulated capacity of 12,169 MW. The plants are scheduled to be installed by 2020 (delayed from 2015), but only a few have progressed so far: PLN has only five plants in the pre-construction stage (out of 17) with the remainder at various phases of development, while only two of the 59 projects developed by the private sector are under construction and a third one in the pre-construction stage (the remainder are still at an early stage). Only one plant of the FTP-2 was commissioned in 2014 (55 MW Patuha geothermal plant in West Java) and one is expected to be commissioned in 2015 (140 MW Bangkanai gas-fired project). High costs are the main reason for delays in the development of geothermal projects (4,965 MW, or 28% of the FTP-2), even if a new Geothermal Energy Law was recently adopted to accelerate development in conservation areas.

The FTP-2 is expected to help meeting a soaring demand: electricity consumption increased by more than 6% over the first 9 months of 2014 and is expected to double in 10 years, from 189 TWh in 2013 to 386 TWh by 2022 (+8%/year).