JAKARTA, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Indonesia expects an additional 8,823 megawatts (MW) of electricity capacity to come online in 2020 as part of a plan to add 35 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, Rida Mulyana, the energy ministry’s Director General of Electricity told parliament on Wednesday.
It would be the biggest capacity rise within a year since the programme was launched in 2015, although the government still expects a further delay in reaching the overall target.
By the end of 2019, only 19% of the targeted additional capacity had been reached, he said, and the government aimed to reach 44% of the 35 GW target this year.
Most of the new power plants expected to start operating this year are coal-fired power plants.
The government however is expecting further delay in those power projects that are currently under construction or being planned, Mulyana said.
The government had previously estimated finishing the 35 GW plan by around 2025 or 2026, but Mulyana told a parliamentary committee the ministry now thinks this will be reached in 2029.
“Some of the issues to build power plants are related to permit, land acquisition,” he said, adding that some projects also faced opposition from local residents. (Reporting by Wilda Asmarini Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; editing by David Evans)
