Bali is set to prohibit the development of coal-fired power plants with a new regulation, focusing instead on harnessing clean and renewable sources of energy to supply the island’s increasing energy demand.
“The power plants will be sourced from renewable sources of energy. Even if we were to use fossil fuels, it will be natural gas because it’s clean,” Supangkat Iwan Santoso, regional business director at state electricity company PLN, said yesterday, as quoted by Liputan6.
Officials previously warned that Bali must anticipate the possibility of an energy crisis, which might occur in the next two to four years. In fact, the new regulation – Governor Regulation on Clean Energy – seeks to boost the island’s energy capacity through alternative sources of energy.
However, Iwan noted that there’s sources of renewable energy on the island remain fairly limited, especially when compared to Bali’s high energy consumption.
Officials estimate that Bali will require as much as 1,500 MW of electricity by 2021, which is more than 300 MW more than the current energy demand.
PLN Bali’s distribution general manager, Nyoman Suwarjoni Astawa, said the company will build a solar power plant soon, with a capacity of 50 megawatts (MW). The problem with that is that solar panels cannot produce energy at night, and storing solar power usually require highly costly batteries.
For a short-term solution, Astawa said PLN might transfer its mobile power plant in Lombok or its Marine Vessel Power Plant in Kupang to Bali in order to boost the energy supply for the island, as reported by Liputan6.
PLN is also considering developing a transmission network between Java and Bali, which will provide 1,600 MW of energy from Java. This is a cheaper endeavor, according to Astawa, than building a new power plant, as the latter might cost as much as IDR 60 trillion (USD 4.2 billion).
“The director of PLN has presented this idea to the Governor, and he has agreed. The project will begin in 2021, and targeted to finish by 2024,” Astawa said, as quoted by Liputan6.
Power has always been a tricky issue in Bali, most of which are supplied to the island from Java. In September 2018, Bali experienced an islandwide blackout after an electrical interference incident occurred at an electric steam power plant (PLTU) in Pacitan, East Java.
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