Jakarta. The Indonesian government this year plans to provide Rp 700 billion ($55 million) in financial aid from the state budget to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for the development of alternative energy — mainly the construction of solar, hydropower and wind power plants — in remote areas.

“We will build a total of 12,000-kilowatt powers this year. There should be enough power for around 13,000 families" in the remote areas, the ministry’s spokesman, Alihudin Sitompul, said on Thursday.

The ministry planned on building 86 solar power plants in 17 provinces, 18 small-scale hydropower plants in 11 provinces, two hydropower plants in Papua and two wind power plants — each in West Java and East Nusa Tenggara.

The government will also hold an auction for project contractors, from February to March, to quicken the development of the power plants, which are targeted to be operational this year.

“We could provide the materials needed for the development as soon as possible, but it is not easy to reach the remote areas, mainly because those areas could be reached only by horse,” Alihudin said.

The new customers being added to the total power grid would only be small, he added.

“There are 50 million customers of the state-run electricity company [Perusahaan Listrik Negara], and the addition of 10,000 customers would mean nothing. That’s not our goal. We only want people in the remote areas to get access to electricity,” Alihudin said.

In 2014, the government had successfully developed 101 power plants in 43 locations.

Investor Daily