Fahmi Mochtar, president director of PLN, said that previously the company requested the government for rise in the electricity tariff in 2010.
Mr. Mochtar, said: “However, the timing when the tariff will be increased or by how much, that is for the government to decide. We can only propose.”
PLN operates plants with a generating capacity of approximately 25,000MW. Since all of its plants are old, the daily power generation is far below capacity.
In 2003, the company increased electric tariffs by an average of 30%, but with electricity rates of approximately 7 US cents per kilowatt hour. The government aims to lower its electricity subsidy bill to IDR40.4 trillion in 2010 from an estimated IDR48.2 trillion in 2009.
The government of Indonesia has a crash programme to add coal burning power plants with a capacity of 10,000MW, to reach the power demand that is increasing approximately 10% year by year.
