A FLOTILLA of floating power stations is supposed soon to traverse the vast waters of eastern Indonesia. The ships, burning marine oil and leased from a Turkish firm, will be a temporary fix for the sprawling archipelago’s rising thirst for power. Indonesia consumes about half as much electricity as Britain, despite being four times as populous; about 50m Indonesians have no mains power at all. Shortages will grow more pressing as the country’s middle class expands: over the next decade or so, electricity demand is expected to rise by nearly 9% a year.
Putting a stop to blackouts is a priority for the government. Last May President Joko Widodo announced an ambition to build more than 100 new power stations in five years (as part of an even bigger scheme to revamp the country’s creaking infrastructure). That plan, combined with work still hanging around from an earlier electrification drive, calls for about 43GW of new generating capacity to be added to the grid. This increase is comparable to the total installed capacity of countries such as Sweden and South Africa, and would mean almost doubling Indonesia’s power...Continue reading
Source: Business and finance http://ift.tt/1Rl8Tw9
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