Jakarta – Secretary General of the National Energy Council (DEN) Djoko Siswanto announced that Indonesia’s energy security could be categorised as ‘resilient’. He also said that Indonesia’s oil and gas imports are still high, and the achievement of new and renewable energy (NRE) is still low and has yet to meet the target in the National Energy General Plan (RUEN).
“For the energy security index, we have completed the calculation. We calculated it at 6.64, and thank God; the category is resilient,” Siswanto said in an online press conference on 2023 Achievements and 2024 Work Program. According to him, energy experts use four variables to calculate the energy security index. First is availability, or energy sources from within and outside the country.
Second is accessibility, assessing the ability to access energy sources, including geographical and geopolitical challenges. Third is affordability, which includes energy investment costs, from exploration to distribution, and consumer affordability of energy prices. Fourth is acceptability, which concerns using environmentally friendly energy, including public acceptance.
Regarding Indonesia’s energy security, Siswanto emphasised that several aspects are still challenging and must be overcome. “Our imports are still LPG, crude oil, and gasoline. In the NZE (net zero emissions) program, we will reduce gasoline imports with electric vehicles, LPG with electric stoves,” he said.
Siswanto stated that if renewable energy can achieve the set targets, affordability without subsidies, infrastructure development, and import reduction, Indonesia can have an energy security index of 10.
Although Indonesia’s energy security score from 2016 to 2022 has improved, Siswanto highlighted the need for concrete measures to continue improving energy security.
The government is also currently faced with a significant subsidy burden for various types of energy, including coal, fuel oil, LPG gas and electricity. In this context, DEN provides some recommendations to improve energy security in Indonesia.
The recommendations involve increasing refinery capacity, LPG substitution, increasing petroleum production, reducing subsidies, and accelerating the utilisation of electric vehicles. This collective effort is expected to lead Indonesia to better energy security in the future. (Hartatik)
