Indonesian Electric Power Exhibition, 2015.

Indonesian Electric Power Exhibition, 2015. [Posted 21 Sep 2015, 115 views, 9 likes, 2 comments]

I recently visited the Exhibition Electric, Power & Renewable Power Indonesia 2015. The exhibits were dominated by Chinese parties, but there was also a strong showing from the well established European players in Indonesia. Korea had some good exhibits, including some innovative generators based on electrolyte. The Indonesian players were largely local outlets for various foreign products. Diesel generators from many suppliers were prominent, and the leading renewable power seemed to be solar panels for small industry and home use. I did not notice any significant displays for wind, wave power, or hydroelectric while geothermal had a few booths. There were many good stands selling components and instruments for the various aspects of power distribution & management, including cables, switching gear etc. The PLN booth was part Indonesian maps showing the various forms of power generation around Indonesia, part CSR activity of selling handicraft and part having engineers to answer questions on renewable energy (not coal). This mix of booths seemed to reflect the commercial industry targeting supplies to large apartment / office high rise, and industry.

Many Indonesian existing power plants are nearing their engineering life expectancy, and I felt there could have been more parties promoting the servicing aspects for such a variety of old power plants, though there was an interesting stand promoting dredging of hydro-electric dams etc. I was disappointed that there was very little on coal fired power plants, particularly given the government and industry priorities to develop the national power supply. These areas of lower emphases probably reflect the state monopoly nature of PLN, where direct marketing is probably more effective.

There were a number of industry associations, including APERLINDO provided some interesting numbers – Ratio of electrification (2014) is 80%, PLN customers 52 million, including 48 million households with planning to add another 3.5 million in 2015. In 2014 Indonesia consumed around 450 million light bulbs, and APERLINDI is promoting changing to the use of more LED light bulbs to save power consumption etc.