Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati asked PT PLN (Persero) to utilize geothermal power as a raw material for electricity that could be felt by the community. He revealed this after witnessing the groundbreaking process of Dieng and Patuha 2 units of geothermal power plants (PLTP) with a capacity of 60 MW each.
“All State-Owned Enterprises, including PLN, to be able to develop extraordinary gifts for the earth of Indonesia, just given prizes cannot use that gift,” said Sri Mulyani in the Dhanapala Building, Ministry of Finance.
Sri Mulyani said Indonesia is the country that has the largest geothermal power potential in the world. However, its utilization is still low and must be encouraged. In order to meet the target of new renewable energy (EBT) utilization of 23% in 2025.
In order to maximize the utilization of EBT, Sri Mulyani also hopes that the process of buying and selling electricity between PT Geo Dipa Energi (Persero) and PLN does not burden the community.
“PLN will argue that if we take it at a high price, the price in the community is also high, because we may not cast a higher level into the community,” he said.
Sri Mulyani admitted that the potential for high prices of buying and selling electricity from geothermal power could occur. Because the investment issued by the company is very expensive.
In fact, the former Managing Director of the World Bank asked Geo Dipa and other geothermal development companies to maintain a balance between the environment and mining. Because a lot of geothermal potentials is located in protected forest areas.
“I hope the technology can be overcome. So it does not have to be faced with the choice between choosing a forest or exploration,” he said.
Source detik.com
