JAKARTA – The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) will regulate the selling price of electricity for solar power plants from consumers to PT PLN (Persero). This will be stated in the Ministerial Regulation (Permen) ESDM concerning Regulating the Use of the Roof PLTS System.
In the draft ESDM PLTS draft Rapermen received by CNNIndonesia.com on Friday (10/8), the Roof PLTS system includes solar modules, inverters, electrical connections, safety systems and import-export kilthatour (kWH) meters. PLN consumers who become the scope of regulation are only individual consumers or business entities, outside the industrial sector.
“The electrical energy generated from the Roof PLTS System has a value that can be transacted to PT PLN (Persero),” as quoted from Article 2 paragraph (5) ESDM Rapermen Arranging the Use of the Roof PLTS System on Friday (10/8).
Electricity credit transactions from the PLTS Roof system are calculated every month based on the electrical energy supplied from the PLN network system to the PLN consumer installation system that installs the PLTS Roof System (energy export) minus the electricity received by PLN from the customer installation system Roof PLTS System (imported energy) )
The amount of electricity exported by PLN is calculated using the export kWh value recorded in the meter. Meanwhile, the amount of imported electricity is calculated based on the import kWh value recorded in the kWh meter of exports and multiplied by the conversion factor. The conversion factor is calculated based on the National Generation BPP divided by electricity rates according to class.
Thus, the price of electricity generated by the Roof PLTS system will be cheaper compared to the price of electricity purchased from PLN.
In addition, in the Rapermen, the Government also limited the PLTS system capacity to rooftop PLTS customers at a maximum of 90 percent of the power connected by PLN customers. Installation of rooftop solar power systems must also have an Operational Worthiness Certificate (SLO).
Not only that, PLN Consumers who are interested in building and installing a Roof PLTS system must submit a development request to the PLN Regional/Distribution General Manager, copy to the Director General of EBTKE and the Director General of Electricity.
Administrative requirements contain at least the PLN customer identity number. Then, the technical requirements that at least regulate the installed power quantity of the roof PLTS system, the technical specifications of the equipment to be installed in a one-line diagram.
If it does not meet the requirements, PLN can refuse the request for the construction and installation of a PLTS Roof system by consumers.
IESR Executive Director Fabby Tumiwa assessed that a number of rules in Rapermen Listrik Surya Atap have not reflected the spirit to accelerate the achievement of the renewable energy mix target of 45 Gigawatts (GW) in 2025, of which 6.5 GW comes from roof solar electricity capacity as mandated in the Plan General National Energy (RUEN).
To this day, electricity generated from roof solar power plants in Indonesia is still less than 100 MW. As a comparison, last year, Fabby said that solar electricity produced by Thailand had reached 2.73 GW, Malaysia 830 MW, and Singapore 130 MW.
“Rapermen should encourage acceleration, encouraging people to want to install solar panels,” he said.
At least there are four provisions in Rapermen which according to Fabby need to be corrected immediately. First, the provision of tariffs for solar electricity purchased by PLN is too low, causing the economic price of solar electricity to be unattractive.
As a result, the difference in the value of prices received by customers becomes lower so that the payback of the investment becomes longer.
During this time, continued Fabby, the selling price of solar electricity referred to the Directors of PT PLN No.0733.K/DIR/2013 using net-metering at a rate of 1: 1. Thus, the tariffs sold to the PLN network are the same as the tariffs purchased from the PLN network.
Fabby explained, if taking into account the conversion factor calculated based on the National Power Plant BPP divided by electricity rates according to the class of tariffs, the selling price of rooftop solar electricity according to Rapermen would be one third lower than the purchase price of electricity.
At present, the investment of roof solar panels is around Rp15 million per kiloWatt (kW), so consumers will return a capital of around eight to nine years. The useful life of roof solar panels can reach twenty years.
“If with Rapermen, the investment return period will be around 12 to 13 years. So not giving incentives instead causes disincentives, “he said.
Second, the government should not need to limit production capacity, but the limits can be done on the inverter used in transferring power with the PLN.
“With an inverter, PLN customers can produce larger solar electricity and determine whether it will be sold to PLN or used alone,” he said
Source:
IESR Indonesia