Indonesia to offer 33 hydropower projects to international investors

The Indonesian Public Works and Public Housing Ministry has announced plans to offer 33 hydroelectric power plant (PLTA) projects to potential investors in 2015.

According to the Ministry, they are currently assessing a total of 203 existing dams, of which only about 5 % have already been developed for use in power-generation.

The projects could be supported by the government through the viability gap fund (VGF) scheme, which allows the government to allocate state funds to cover up to 40% of the total investment of an infrastructure project using the public private partnership (PPP) model.

The 33 hydroelectric power plant (PLTA) projects will help the government to achieve its objective of expanding the country’s renewable energy from 10.7 GW to 21.5 GW by 2019. The hydropower energy is expected to increase to about 13,400 MW by 2019 from the current output of about 7,600 MW.

The Indonesian Public Works and Public Housing Ministry has also plans to develop 49 dams over the next five years, an increase from the previous target of 30 dams. The total investment for this master plan is estimated at about Rp400.5 trillion (US$32.7 billion).