The Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency has drawn up Bt10 billion budget plan to support its projects during 2020-2024.
The department deputy director-general Yongyuth Sawatdisawanee said the projects will include preparing a revolving fund to promote energy conservation, actions to support the use of energy-saving machinery, the promotion of solar rooftops, and demonstration projects targeted to farmers showing how to use less energy.
The department will this month hold a fifth and final hearing into its draft plan for developing alternative energy from 2018-2037.
The plan aims to raise the ratio of electricity generated by alternative energy sources to 30 per cent of total produced energy, representing 29,358 contracted megawatts, within 2037.
The contribution from solar energy will be increased to 15,574 megawatts in that year.
The Electricity Authority of Cambodia and Electricité du Cambodge yesterday held a press conference to fend off criticism from the public regarding electricity shortages and billing irregularities.
During the press conference, which was organised by the Government Spokespersons Unit, EDC director-general Keo Ratanak said the EDC received many complaints from customers between January and July, including 237 posted on Facebook.
“This year, there has been a storm of protests regarding electricity issues, including insults on Facebook that accused us of ‘sucking people’s blood,’” Mr Ratanak said. “But I want to inform you that we have reduced the price of electricity from 4,000 riels per kilowatt to 380 riels, 480 riels and 610 riels because we are paying attention to people’s livelihoods.”
Mr Ratanak was referring to different rates being applied based on the amount of electricity consumed by a household.
He noted that any EDC official found to have cheated customers will be sacked and be held accountable in accordance with the law.
A man checks his power usage on his meter at his home in the capital. KT/Chor Sokunthea
Mr Ratanak added that in order to avoid misunderstandings, the government will replace English with Khmer on monthly electricity bills.
“We wish to ensure that there have been no changes to the [rates],” Mr Ratanak said. “We will check for you – free of charge – if you have any suspicions.”
He noted that in order to file a complaint, residents should use the EDC’s hotline or send a direct message to the EDC’s official Facebook page instead of posting on social media.
The Kingdom faced an electricity shortage earlier this year that led to rolling blackouts to conserve power.
The government said at the time that the blackouts were necessary because a lack of rain had affected the output of the country’s hydropower dams.
Mr Ratanak also addressed critics of hydropower dams during the press conference.
“When we have a power project, we always get backlash from opposition protesters – they are against any hydropower dams,” Mr Ratanak said. “In Vietnam, their government can build a lot of hydropower dams.”
He said the government has a policy to reduce the import of electricity in order to make Cambodia self-reliant.
Mr Ratanak noted that currently, Cambodia imports 10 percent of its electricity supply from Vietnam, six from Thailand and two from Laos.
“In 2008 and 2010, 70 to 80 percent of our supply depended on Vietnam and Thailand,” he said. “Now we import less from them.”
According to the Mines and Energy Ministry, Cambodia produced 2,650 megawatts of electricity last year, of which 1,329 megawatts, or 50 percent, came from hydroelectric dams.
When asked why the price of electricity in the Kingdom is more expensive when compared to neighbouring countries, Mr Ratanak said countries like Thailand and Vietnam began developing their energy sector earlier than Cambodia.
“We don’t believe that our electricity price is higher than Singapore, the Philippines and other countries in Asean, but the truth is that our prices are higher than Vietnam and Thailand,” he said. “Vietnam and Thailand are capable of producing more than 40,000 megawatts while our country only can produce 2,000. So, we can’t compare to them.”
“Like Vietnam, they have many hydropower dams and coal and gas-powered [facilities],” he said. “They also export gas, and what do we have?”
“Vietnam ended their war a long time ago and they had ample time to develop its electricity sector,” Mr Ratanak added. “We just ended the civil war in 1998.”
EAC chairman Yim Viseth said the government has so far installed meters in 34 percent of homes being rented by garment workers across Phnom Penh. Mr Viseth noted that landlords must avoid charging the workers extra.
“In principle, the government wants our workers, who rent rooms, to pay less for electricity,” he said. “Currently, we have installed electricity meters in over 30,000 rooms [in the capital].”
Mr Viseth noted that anyone who complains about irregularities caused by the government-installed electricity meters can install their own meters.
With recent news of a power outage seeing demand for alternative power sources, as reported by VOA News, Director of PT Geo Dipa Energi Riki Ibrahim highlighted how geothermal power plants can very easily provide backup power should gas-fired power plants fail. Considering its reliability and low carbon emission, Riki has urged PT PLN (Persero) support the development of more geothermal power plants in Indonesia.
“When a power plant has a problem, it takes some time for it to heat up before it can supply to the grid.” explained Riki. “Geothermal power plants can provide a more reliable base load, so why doesn’t PLN build more of them?” Riki Ibrahim expressed these sentiments at a recent Ministry of Finance meeting in Jakarta.
The cause of the major blackout on August 4 is already being investigated by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM). “The purpose of the investigation is not to find who is at fault, but to come up with measures to prevent the incident from happening again,” said ESDM Director General Rida Mulyana.
JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday signed a decree laying out government support for electric vehicle (EV) industry in the country, looking to leverage its wealth of essential metals.
The key to the EV industry was in the construction of batteries, and the “raw materials to make a battery: cobalt, manganese and others, we have in this country,” Widodo said in a statement issued by the Cabinet Secretariat.
Indonesia has been seeking to carve out a downstream industry based on its supplies of nickel laterite ore, which is used in lithium batteries.
“The business strategy can be designed in this country so that we can get ahead of others in building an inexpensive electric car industry, which is competitive because the raw materials are here,” Widodo said during an event at the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to the statement.
Indonesia aims to become an EV hub for Asia and beyond with a target to start EV production in 2022 and for the share of EV output to reach 20% of total car production by 2025.
Widodo warned building such an industry would take longer than “a year or two”, because it must also create a new market.
New regulations would encourage not only EVs but also hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, covering all the new green technologies in the automotive industry, the industry ministry said in a separate statement.
The government will allow for imports of completely built units (CBU) – entire vehicles – for three years under a quota system as companies prepare for production of greener cars, the ministry said.
But in 2023, all such cars must have a minimum local component mix of 35%, it said.
For cars to get the benefit of low tariffs for Australian exports the minimum local component must reach 40%. Jakarta signed a free trade agreement with Canberra in March, giving Indonesian cars lower tariffs to enter the Australian market.
A draft regulation seen by Reuters ahead of the signing also said automakers would get reductions in import tariffs for EV machinery and materials and lower luxury taxes for buyers, among other things.
“At least three principals (companies) have expressed their commitment to invest in the EV industry,” Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto said, naming Japanese Toyota Motor Corp as one of them.
Authorities have previously said Toyota, which has the biggest market share in the domestic car market, and Hyundai Motor would invest $2 billion and $880 million in the country, respectively, to develop EVs over the next few years.
Widodo on Thursday also suggested city administrations in Indonesia could provide more incentives, such as free parking or free administrative fees, to further support adoption of EVs.
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), a Malaysian principal electricity utility authority, recently raided 33 SegWitCoin (BTC) mining operations accused of stealing electricity. The unmetered mining activities were reportedly being carried out for the past 6 months near the state capital of Pahang, Kuantan.
According to the local media reports, authorities conducted the raid on August 7 at 10:30 am. The operation consisted of 30 special TNB team members and 5 personnel from the security services department. The raid was conducted after the utility obtained a search warrant from the Kuala Lumpur magistrates’ court.
In the first premises, which was conducted at Kapung Jaja Gading, the team found an unmanned BTC mining premise that was using 1500 Amps of unmetered electricity, while metered electricity only registered at 3 Amps
Siti Sarah Johana Mohd, the Distributing Network General Manager on elaborating the incident stated:
The metered 3 Amp was used only for one lamp and a suction fan. They paid a bill of only 219 Malaysian ringgit ($52) whereas they should have been billed 108,000 Malaysian ringgit ($25,674) a month for the unmetered 1,500 Amp.
TNB collected evidence that 23 premises were running Bitcoin mining activities while the other 10 premises were aware of our raid this time around and destroyed the evidence.
Reportedly, the BTC miners not only used high power computer networks mining equipment but also deployed electricity power directly from the distributor board to the machine bypassing the meter.
As a result of the illegal cryptocurrency mining operations, TNB incurred a loss of 3.2 million Malaysian ringgit ($760,736) from stolen electricity.
While addressing the incidents, the Energy Commissioner of Malaysia urged premise owners to be aware of such illegal activities going on in their premises. He encouraged landlords to transfer utility bills, such as electricity accounts to the name of their tenants.
Energy theft in BTC mining is not new. Recently in June, authorities in China discovered that a few crypto miners in the country were stealing energy from local oil wells to power their mining equipments. According to the report, these individuals had connected pipes to the wells that helped them get access to the energy. All this was done to avoid paying the huge bill that comes with mining cryptocurrencies.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (SegWit) chain are referenced as SegWitCoin BTC coins. Altcoins, which value privacy, anonymity, and distance from government intervention, are referenced as dark coins.
Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) is today the only Bitcoin project that follows the original Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper, and that follows the original Satoshi protocol and design. BSV is the only public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin and will massively scale to become the world’s new money and enterprise blockchain.
TOKYO — Honda Motor will shift Japanese production of its Accord hybrid sedan to Thailand, where it wants to take advantage of tax incentives for manufacturing greener cars, according to sources.
Honda’s plan follows Mitsubishi Motors‘ announcement earlier this month of its intention to make plug-in hybrids in the Southeast Asian country, starting in early 2021.
The move will start with the Accord model scheduled for release in Japan in early 2020. Honda is also considering exporting from Thailand to other countries, including Australia.
The automaker plans to spend 5.82 billion baht ($189 million) on the plan, which will expand its output of cars with electric motors.
The Thai government is encouraging production of such cars — including electric vehicles and hybrids — by dangling corporate tax breaks, cutting excise duties and lowering levies on imported manufacturing equipment.
Honda’s plant in Sayama, north of Tokyo, has been making the Accord but will terminate auto production by the end of March 2022. Honda decided it would be more efficient to import the Accord from Thailand, where its plant already makes the model with the steering wheel on the right side — the standard configuration in Japan.
The Accord is considered a high-end sedan and a signature model for Honda. It sold about 500,000 units in 2018, mainly in the U.S. and China, though it sold only about 2,000 in Japan.
The Thai plant turned out a little more than 3,000 Accords in 2018, but the figure is expected to significantly increase in 2019, driven by the planned increase in hybrid output.
Honda’s shift comes as the world’s automakers grow more selective about investments, aiming to enhance efficiency. Emerging economies in Asia, which are rapidly becoming more technologically advanced, have become appealing options for making not just compact cars but also light-on-the-planet vehicles like hybrids.
Japan’s Toyota Motor and Mazda Motor also plan to make electrically driven vehicles in Thailand.
Global waste is expected to grow to 3.40 billion tonnes by 2050, more than double the population growth over the same period. According to a 2018 World Bank report, ‘What a Waste 2.0’ on solid waste management, the East Asia and Pacific region generates most of the world’s waste, at 23 percent.
Landfills have been the cheapest method of disposal but the rapid growth of waste is making it harder to manage. As our garbage woes worsen, the region is looking at the option of managing massive waste by turning it into electricity. Although there are many methods of turning waste into power, incineration is the cheapest and best-known waste-to-energy (WtE) technology, eliminating the physical burden of waste while producing much-needed energy.
Japan recently expressed its intention to become Southeast Asia’s trash manager, setting aside US$18.6 million in its fiscal 2019 budget for developing proposals and bidding on waste management deals in Southeast Asia.
Japan currently has 380 WtE plants nationwide, and is offering service packages that include waste disposal systems and expertise in different aspects of trash management, like collection and separation. Japan will also propose specialised plans to tackle trash pileups in Philippine cities and polluted groundwater in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Across ASEAN
Vietnam produces an average of 70,000 tonnes of waste per day, and with WtE plants in place, it is estimated that it could produce around one billion kilowatts per hour (kWh) in 2020, and six billion kWh in 2050 – just from waste. Currently, WtE plants in Vietnam include the Nam Son, Hanoi facility and the Go Cat waste handling project in Ho Chi Minh City with a capacity of 2.4 megawatts (MW). In Soc Son, Hanoi, a Vietnam-Japan government-to-government project plant is producing 1.93 MW of electricity.
WtE projects in the Philippines include a US$48 million plant set to start construction in Davao City, a US$40.5 million project in the pipeline in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan and a facility already operational in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu.
Malaysia’s first WtE plant is expected to be fully operational this year.
“In KPKT’s policy, we want every state to have at least one WtE incinerator within two years’ time, while we are phasing out landfill,” said Zuraida Kamaruddin, Housing and Local Government (KPKT) Minister.
In April 2018, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo issued a regulation to set up eco-friendly plants to turn waste into electricity, as a means to tackle the country’s growing mountain of trash. Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said since then, cities including Jakarta, Surabaya, Bekasi and Solo have pledged to build such plants, which incinerate trash to drive turbines to create power. 12 WtE power plants are due to be operational by 2022 with a combined capacity of 234 MW of electricity using 16,000 tons of waste a day.
Source: Various
The Thai government has offered subsidies and tax incentives for various WtE plants, including incineration, gasification, fermentation and landfill gas capture. To further boost investments, the government there has increased the power purchase quota from 500 to 900 MW and allocated an additional budget of US$106.5 million to fund the waste management strategy.
Based on the Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency Department’s database, there are currently 33 operational WtE plants in Thailand with an overall capacity of 283 MW. Building small, localised WtE plants was one of the core policies of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). Out of the 33 plants, only two are generating more than 10 MW.
Protest over pollution
Sonthi Kotchawat, a leading environmental health expert, warned that careless development of WtE plants can cause a large environmental impact from hazardous pollution. Small energy plants are also causing more pollution, Sonthi said, pointing out that small plants do not share the same environmental protection standards as larger plants. The owners of these plants also do not have enough budget to invest in efficient but expensive pollution-trapping systems that is compulsory for larger plants.
Unsorted waste makes Thailand’s trash too full of organic and other non-flammable materials which reduce the ability of incineration plants to reach the high temperatures necessary to produce electricity and avoid toxic emissions and ash by-products. This has led some local communities and civil society groups to protest over pollution and health concerns.
Indonesia too faces similar challenges. Despite the government support for WtE projects, progress has lagged because of public backlash against incineration projects. In 2018, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled that incineration of waste was against the law because it produced hazardous pollutants.
Waste burning in the Philippines is also prohibited under the country’s Clean Air Act, but this has not stopped private companies from trying to construct waste incinerators that produce electricity.
Although incineration eliminates physical waste, moving beyond traditional incineration is important for sustainable and long-term operation of the plants. If well-managed, waste-to-energy can reduce the need for physical waste storage. Unmanaged waste will lead to further environmental impact. For more efficiency, a waste sorting system must be established so the region can use the best WtE technologies available today.
Solar power companies in Indonesia are struggling to keep their margins intact. The Government of Indonesia had announced a renewable energy target of 23% to reach by 2025.
In order to push installations of renewable energy, the Government has introduced various regulations through different ministries. However, companies are protesting against some of the regulations as they feel they are not conducive for solar power development in the country.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has introduced regulations on licensing of rooftop solar PV systems and feed-in-fees for exporting excess power into the grid of the state utility PT PLN.
In 2017, the Government introduced MEMR Regulation 50/2017, through which a new mechanism was introduced to determine the tariff at which PT PLN will purchase electricity from Independent Power Producers (IPPs). This provided PT PLN greater control over prevalent tariffs in the sector through negotiations and benchmarking against the applicable Electricity Generation Basic Cost (Biaya Pokok Penyediaan Pembangkitan or “BPP”).
The BPP reflects the cost for PT PLN in generating power and in procuring it from third-party suppliers but does not include the cost for transmitting it. The tariff calculation for solar PV technology is done as:
If local BPP is greater than national BPP from the previous year, the tariff shall be set at a maximum 85% of the local BPP.
If national BPP is greater than or equal to local BPP from the previous year, the tariff shall be based on a mutual agreement between the IPP and PLN.
This regulation presented a challenge to solar PV investors since their offer price to PT PLN was no longer tied directly to their respective production costs but rather to the cost of producing energy generally and from whatever source in a given region. Also the annual calibration of BPP gave rise to fluctuation in the price at which the companies sold power to PT PLN.
In November 2018 the Ministry introduced the MEMR Regulation 49/2018 for rooftop solar PV installations. Under this regulation, all rooftop solar PV installations require prior verification and approval from PT PLN’s local distribution company and the process of verification and approval should be completed within 15 days.
The verification required information on PT PLN customer identification number, installed capacity of the planned rooftop PV system, specifications of the equipment to be installed and a one-line diagram of the planned PV system. The regulation also introduced the calculation for electricity bills for customers of PT PLN with rooftop solar PV installations.
The bills are to be calculated on a monthly basis based on the kilowatt per hour (kWh) import value minus the kWh export value. The export value will be calculated at 65% of the applicable PT PLN tariff. The rooftop solar PV developers have concerns around the additional requirement for approval as well as the 65% multiplier.
Under the previous government, the multiplier was not in place, so the difference between import value and export value was considered for calculating the customer bills. Under the current government, if the import value is same as earlier then the difference between import value export and 65% of export value is considered for calculating the customer bills, thereby making the bills more inflated. As a result, customer interest in setting up rooftop solar PV is lowered.
Currently, all renewable energy projects in Indonesia are developed under the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) scheme where PT PLN is the sole off-taker of the electricity produced. The independent power producers (IPPs) own and operate the production facilities for limited period as mentioned in the power purchase agreement (PPA) with PT PLN.
In 2017, through the MEMR Regulation 10/2017, the Government introduced certain mandatory requirements for PPAs which had bankability provisions around risks related to government force majeure (GFM) and natural force majeure (NFM) which can affect the grid and the relevant parties to the PPAs. Before the introduction of this regulation, the GFM events were divided into two scenarios, namely the unjustified government action or inaction (e.g., revocation of permits without valid or legal cause) and changes in laws & regulations.
The government risks were passed on to PT PLN which was then able to manage the risks through various provisions. The company used to either make deemed dispatch payments to cover revenue loss in case the plant stops its operations due to GFM events or make tariff adjustments to compensate for the cost impacts loss.
PT PLN also adjusted the payments of termination amount which equals to outstanding project debt plus lost future equity returns if the PPA is terminated due to prolonged GFM events.
As such the insecurity around constant income for solar developers prevailed in the market. In 2018, the government amended the regulation with MEMR Regulation 10/2018 where parties to the PPA have the freedom to negotiate terms in case of any GFM. But in case of NFM, the PT PLN has the provision to pay deemed dispatch if there is disruption in PT PLN’s grid due to any NFM events like flood, lightning etc.
There was no provisioning for NFM under MEMR Regulation 10/2018 for PPA bankability. This meant that in case of NFM clarity whether the developers would be getting paid by PT PLN for the units they are sending to the grid was unavailable. This created a state of dilemma amongst solar developers whether to go ahead with investments.
The Ministry of Industry (MOI) has also implemented regulations which says that companies can build solar plants only if they meet the 60% local content requirement (LCR). Since most of the equipment is being imported it is becoming difficult for investors to meet the LCR.
As per GlobalData at the end of 2018, Indonesia reported a total capacity installation of over 65GW. The country is mainly driven by fossil fuels, with more than 85% of the country’s cumulative capacity coming from thermal technology, mainly coal. The country has over 30GW of coal power installations at the end of 2018.
Indonesia has set a renewable energy target of 23% of its energy mix by 2025 but at the end of 2018 it has just installed 106MW of solar and 85MW of wind installations respectively. In order to increase renewable energy contributions the country has to come up with incentives and regulations that can improve investments in the renewable energy sector.
Figure 1: Capacity Mix, Indonesia, 2018
Source: GlobalData
Indonesia has strong solar potential but a series of policy missteps have retarded the growth of the technology. The country has launched its Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL) 2019-2028 which has a reduced focus on solar, withPT PLN reducing its solar plan by 137 MW. Looking at the successful experience of solar in a number of countries worldwide, Indonesia must devise regulations to have strong solar set up in order to tap its potential so that the technology can contribute more to the country’s generation mix.
