Hydropower Investment - Where to?

Hydropower is always related to rainfall. Area that is dry (low rainfall) suppose to be not very attactive for hydropower investment. Let's take a look only on the rainfall information. According to the latest document of Bappenas, the Indonesia Climate Change Sectoral Roadmap (ICCSR), rainfall in all areas in Indonesia will change. The changes are either an increase or a decrease. The simulation reported that Sumatera and Papua will have mostly increases of rainfall. Download ICCSR report here.

In Sumatera, central to south Sumatera might have significant increase of rainfall intensity. Siginificant increase means bigger than 25 mm and lower than 50 mm. Central to North Sumatera might have significant increase and very significant increase (higher than 50 mm). In Papua, all areas will have significant increase of rainfall with some months might have very significant increases of rainfall intensity.

No One Helps the President

Everyone who seeks for justice goes to Jakarta and tries to get justice from the president. Those who are already desperate go to Jakarta. The latest case is actually a 15 years old case. A father from Malang, East Java, have walked more than 1000 kms to go to Jakarta and sees for justice. His son was a victim of traffic accident. His son is dead. The one who hit his son was a police officer. The police never went to jail. The father sees that as injustice so he went to Jakarta to get it from the president.

Not just justice that people ask from the president. The president also get blammed by many. For example in the case of exploding LPG cans. People blame the president for being silent and seems not doing anything. Another example is in the case of price hike. Recently prices are skyrocketing and has made inflation almost reached 1% in just one month. People blamed the president for seems not doing anything to cool down the price hike.

The Gasoline Problem

It was few months ago when the government started the campaign to reduce the consumption of subsidized gasoline. Not very long after that, there are many "fuel pump" problems. Fuel pumps get clogged and even burnt. Many found that there is something wrong with the gasoline (at least their preliminary conclusion). Not very long after that two big taxi operators also reported that hundreds not to mention thousands cars of their fleet also have fuel pump problems. This creates suspicion to the government. Many says that government through state owned oil company try to reduce the consumption of subsidized fuel (gasoline) by putting something bad in the liquid.

All the allegations have not been proved. No one still can not prove that either government or state own company or even the car user or the fuel station owner played dirty. The state own company defended it self to being strict to the standard. Everything come out from their refineries or central distribution points are tested according to the regulation and standard. There are no violations what so ever. Taxi operators even sent the fuel sample to an independent lab in Thailand for a test and the lab showed that the gasoline has too much sulfur content. Sulfur content is always a problem for the diesel fuel here in Indonesia. The quality of diesel fuel is not so clean. Sulfur content is a bit high so that advance common rail systems would not drink it. I am a bit afraid that the fuel station wrongly refuel the underground tanks. The one usually for diesel fuel is refilled with gasoline. They mix and increase sulfur content in the gasoline. But, how likely this is in reality? I guess zero.

Only the Bill that Makes People Worry....

world cup has made a slight increase on the power demand. world cup finals in south africa are played at night in Indonesia. time difference of approximately 4-6 hours between south africa and indonesia (jakarta) has created this situation. during the group matches the games are played between 6 p.m. to around 11 p.m. Indonesian time. In the knock out phase, the games are played between 9 p.m. to around 3 a.m. and semi finals are played at even later time. they starts at 1.30 a.m.. I guess the final will also be played at around 1.30 a.m..

for football fans, the knock out round, semi finals and final are the most interesting rounds of the world cup finals. this has made them stay awake longer than before. the longer those tvs on, the more electricity is consumed. however there are also people that prefer watching the matches with friends or colleagues. this means they watch the tv not at home and maybe only one tv on for, let's say 5-10 people. this has made significant power saving compared to one tv for 1-2 people only. In Indonesia, only the national broadcaster that broadcast the matches. sattelite or pay tv customers are not able to see it via the subscription tv. this might further reduce the possibilities of more tv to be on at late night.

DG Suspected for Corruption

Just got a shocking news today. Anti Corruption Commission has made the DG of DGEEU as the suspect in the corruption case at DGEEU. It is suspected he and one other suspect has marked up the price in the tender of solar home system project back in 2007-2008. 

I have heard many versions of this mark up. One says that old-non broken SHS systems was bought back from the villagers at very cheap price and sold at much higher price. Other say that the contractor won some projects but only one or two are reported. The rest is just money and never been applied in the field. It's just some options that I heard and understood. I guess there are many other strategies to cheat the government budget.

As far as I observe, those that are managing projects at DGEEU are now being very careful and try not to break the law. They already understood the consequences. Before the KPK's latest decision, there are many of DGEEU staffs that were interviewed by KPK. Some were interviewed more than 10 hours. I guess it was from them that KPK can come to above conclusion. I hope with this, DGEEU will be better and I hope the new DG will be even better than DGEEU.

The news can be found in this link (bahasa)

Official - Electricity Tariff Increase July 2010

BASIC ELECTRICITY TARIFF WILL BE INCREASE BY 10% IN JULY 2010.

It is already in the news that Government of Indonesia will increase the basic electricity tariff by 105 in July 2010. By doing this, the government can reduce the subsidy up to IDR 800 billion per month and thus can reduce government spending and avoid budget deficit. I personally say this is a good news. I might have higher electricity bill next August, however this is a real momentum for energy efficiency measures. Government should and must make bigger campaign on energy efficiency and conservation. More news in Detik Finance (in bahasa).

PLN Says - Free Electricity for Poor People

Director of PLN mentioned this idea to provide free electricity for poor consumers. Poor consumers according to his definition are those who have 450 VA connections. According to his calculation, PLN will only lost IDR 1.5 trillion if electricity is free for poor consumers. His argues that if the new tariff is applied PLN will profit IDR 20 trillion from richer consumers. If tariff is applied and no exceptions are made PLN will profit roughly IDR 40 trillion. 

Opinions are divided into two groups. Those that are supporting the idea say that all other state owned companies should also do that as social obligation. Those who against the idea say that such thing will only create complex conditions, opening more holes for corruption, making PLN suffers from lost (despite calculation above) and many other reasons.

Special Allocation Fund - Model for Rural RE Implementation

In the recent years government of Indonesia spent lot of money to electrify rural areas. There are many programs such as decentralization fund support, energy independent village, rural electrification, energy facility support from Ministry of Under Developed Areas, and also Kecamatan Development Project (KDP) project under Ministry of Internal Affairs. Beside those major programs there are smaller projects by local governments, non government organizations and other government institutions.

In short, there are many models of implementation and so far there is no evidence of the best implementation model that can be used by many and replicated easily. Implementation model applied by NGOs usually are close to ideal however the success rate is also questionable since there is not enough information. Quite ideal here means there is a combination of top down and bottom up approach. The level of community involvement is usually also quite high and there is specific activity to facilitate the community to be ready with the new installation. Government's implementation model varies between implementing Ministries. The common characteristics of government's approach are top down, little community participation, and lack of monitoring and supervision.

Interesting Banner - Anti Graft Banner

I found this banner this morning when I arrived to the office. My office is actually in a government building and this banner looks like a campaign to me. Showing this banner proves that there is something wrong in their system. There must be something wrong, if not they will not put the banner.

Indonesia is among the most corrupt countries according to transparency international. The corruption index is 2.2 and at the same level as Iraq (which as you know are in war, which makes corruption quite reasonable). I guess this shows how the government looks like. Despite (maybe) quite high economic development, there is still lack of character development. It is true that money or something like that corrupts the character of people.

First Fly to Europe

Garuda eventually flew to Europe on the 1st of June 2010. The flight was the first flight after the ban was lifted last year. Only two airlines from Indonesia are allowed to fly in the European sky and one of them is Garuda (the national carrier). Garuda flew to Amsterdam and I guess this is not with any reasons. After almost 350 years colonizing Indonesia, the Netherlands is the only country in Europe that has closest historical ties with Indonesia. I guess it is easier for Indonesia to fly to the Netherlands rather than to other European countries.

Fuel Subsidy - Vol II

Just after big discussion about subsidized fuel consumption, the price of non-subsidized fuel is going down. The price of non subsidized fuel is in the range of IDR 6400 to IDR 7400 per liter. The price is attached to international crude oil price, therefore there is always a chance that the non-subsidized fuel price to be higher or lower. If the crude oil price goes down extremely, the price of non subsidized fuel might also be very close to the price of subsidized fuel (i.e. IDR 4500 per liter).

In this case why don't the government also attached the subsidized fuel price with the international crude oil price?

Fuel Subsidy - Quo Vadis?

Recently there is a big discussion on the internet about the plan from the government to reduce the consumption of subsidized fuel (especially gasoline). There are some proposals to reduce the consumptions: ban the motor bikes from buying subsidized gasoline; limit the purchase per motorized vehicle per man per day; smart card to limit the purchase; and ban the cars from consuming the subsidized fuel. There is a big discussion about the proposed strategies especially the one that plans to ban motor bikes from buying subsidized fuel.

the motorists are against that particular strategy and their opinion is backed up by motor cycle industry. Their arguments mainly are: motor bike consumption is far less that car, therefore it is the car that should be banned from using subsidized fuel; motor bike users are mainly of lower income therefore using non subsidized fuel would certainly eat bigger part of their income. Final decision is not yet taken since any decision will certainly effect the national economy.

Recent Trip to South and West Sulawesi

It was actually happened in late 2009 (December 2009), therefore this note might be a little late. Anyway, I guess after 6 months the conditions might still the same therefore it might be a useful info for people want to travel there.

Back in December 2009 during this PCNA (Participatory Capacity Needs Assessment) with a friend of mine Axel Biegert von Integration, I went to Makassar and Batang Uru in West Sulawesi province. We had to fly from Jakarta to reach Makassar and drive the whole day to Batang Uru. The road from Makassar to Polewali was under construction at that time. The government tried to pave the road using concrete but the contractor/s do it part by part. Therefore it's like "coitus interuptus", when one just experiencing comfort suddenly it has to stop. Stopping here means good road ends. It happens frequently and it has made the travel not so comfortable. Reaching Polewali took longer then 5 years ago.

During the trip we stopped in Pinrang for lunch at one of the famous sea food restaurants. The food was good but still the road was not. Starting at around 7 from Makassar we reached Pinrang at around 1 p.m. and I guess this was considered as slow. We reached Batang Uru when the day was getting dark and raining. The road from Polewali to Batang Uru was worse because of many holes in the road. Since the Kabupaten (one level lower than provincial government) of Polman (Polewali Mandar) was split into two Kabupatens (Polewali and Mandar), the road maintenance was done poorly. Therefore 5 years ago I can reach Makassar in just 5 hours using speedy public transport even.

On the way back we stayed overnight in Pinrang and again took the liberty to enjoy the seafood there. Back in Makassar we tried to go to Trans Studio but it was too expensive and too little time to enjoy so we just ate at a recommended seafood restaurant there and we ordered some nice stuffs to eat. When you are in Makassar do not forget to buy Minyak Tawon (literally means Bee oil) kind a rub only that really works for even small wound on your skin.

Explore Indonesia, there are many things to explore and exotic ones. Going abroad is fifth or sixth options (when there is enough money..)

ISO 50001 Energy Management

International community is moving forward on Energy Efficiency. Right now there is already a draft of ISO 50001 which standardize Energy Management. Energy management is an essential component of efforts to increase the efficiency of energy usage. It is an essential part because energy efficiency and conservation needs clear plan, strategies, and target to achieve. Energy, in a production process, is an important part that affects the cost of production therefore managing energy usage wisely and methodically will lead to reduced cost of production and eventually increase the competitiveness of the product and also the company.

Indonesia will certainly adopt the standard. The head of Standardization Agency (BSN) has informed public that they are on the track of adopting the ISO standard. As soon as the international draft is approved and becoming operation ISO, Indonesian government will immediately adopt it.

There are some options of adaptation. First is full adaptation and only translation is needed. The second is slight changes and most of the ISO standard is included. This strategy needs longer time to finish. The last one is creating new national standard with the ISO standard as the reference. This last strategy takes longest time. BSN is likely to choose the fast track strategy, or 100% adopt the ISO. To my opinion, this strategy is the most appropriate one. Indonesia now is badly in a need of Energy Management standard to improve national competitiveness and also energy performance.

Hopefully many companies will in the future voluntarily apply the new ISO or new National Standard to improve their performance and competitiveness. Now there is a big need for energy managers.

PrePaid Meter

Approximately 2 months ago I saw prepaid kWh meters are installed at some new houses in a housing estate near my home in Bogor. I was quite surprised that PLN did it since, as far as I know, PLN still in pilot testing phase for those kind of meters. the meters are installed at houses that are still constructed. I guess that was intended to secure the electricity payment by housing estate developer during the construction. The already inhabited houses (new ones) use normal kWh meter (not prepaid). According to the brick layers that are working in those houses, their foreman has to go to the bank to get electricity "credits" that later are charged into the meter by putting in codes. I did not see any external MCB, that usually accompany normal kWh meters. this meter should not be unlimited (by MCB) because basically it will make the power planning difficult for PLN.

searching the internet, I found that since 2005 PLN already started using prepaid kWh meters in Bali. Bali is the first because there are many houses or villas without are empty without any people staying. to avoid bad cash flow, off course, this prepaid system is very rational. After Bali, PLN then made the pilot projects in Jakarta and Tangerang area. In 2007 people in the thousand islands are equipped with prepaid kWh meter and starting 2009 the "land" customers have the chance to use this prepaid system also. According to the sources in the Internet there are now approximately 27.000 customers of PLN using prepaid system. PLN now limits the prepaid connection up to only 5.500 VA. This means the kWh meter system has a limiting device. I guess it can be electronically programmed to exactly trip when the current is reaching certain level.

I found this prepaid system both interesting and practical. It is interesting because it is new and opens many possibilities for privacy, flexible payment, and no penalties for late payment. there is no validity limit on the credits (not like most prepaid GSM systems). One still can use the 2 years old credit. This is great. It is practical because one can and have to manage his electricity consumption wisely. For budget limited families, this can be a useful solution. For example: one family only allocate IDR 50.000 per month for electricity. By adjusting power usage, this target can be achieved. One can buy the credits everywhere such as in banks, ATM, or directly to nearest PLN service points. However the lowest credit one can buy is IDR 100.000, but this can be used more than 1 month if a family uses electricity conservatively.

However there is one thing in my mind that is so far unanswered: the tariff. I guess the tariff still follows the national tariff now. Therefore tariff below and above 60 kWh will be different. What about the connection fee or the subscription fee? Is there any subscription fee? Is there any grace period, after the credit finish, before someone has the chance to recharge the credit? Does it temper proof? Are there any possibilities for someone to hack the system? PLN once said that this meter system will make their work easier since it is not needed to check the stand of the meter. But if rarely checked then there might be people trying to bypass the meter and tap the electricity directly from the connection cables.

The prepaid meter opens many opportunities both positive or negative. Now it’s time to prove the performance of the system and also it’s realibility.

First Half Year of 2010

Many things happen in the first half year of 2010. First thing is the birthday of my daughter. She is 1 year 4 months now and she officially walked her first step in February. As for me, end of January 2010 marked the third year I am with GTZ MHPP/AGMHP. Time flies very fast and you'll never realized it. This year I decided to reduce my working days from 5 days in a week to just 4 days in a week. The one day left suppose to be my personal working day. This means I can now look more on energy efficiency.

The decision to take 4 days working days for the office also due to the load I am having now. The load was so far not very heavy so that it gives me hard time to write for my blog. There are actually many important issues to share but the spirit is not there. Due to quite low work load, I am becoming lazy. But this has to change and it has to change now.

I also started my docstoc account. One can search for specific topic for example Demand Side Management Sinar Rinjani. The search result will certainly put my master thesis at the first row. The Docstoc account hopefully will expand my exposure. I hope many are enjoying my writing there. Beside my writings, there are also documents publicly available to download that comes from my project (GTZ supported). Hopefully with this Docstoc the good work can be replicated somewhere else.

Happy reading and do not hesitate to leave comments.

Happy new year

Development Boom in Renewable Energy Sector in the Next 5 years?

A new ministerial decree is coming on 13th November 2009 (31/2009). I guess, this is a part of the government’s 100 days program especially from Department of Energy and Mineral Resources. The new ministerial decree is concerning the feed in tariff for renewable energy generators with capacity less than 10 MW or excess power. The new decree automatically cancels the infant ministerial decree number 5/2009 that was just released few months ago.

What’s the main characteristic of this new decree? It is the feed in price. For generators interconnected to medium voltage (I guess it is 20 kV), the averaged feed in price is 656 IDR/kWh for Java Bali area (factor = 1). For generators interconnected to low voltage (I guess it is 400 V), the averaged feed in price is 1004 IDR/kWh for Java Bali area (factor = 1). For islands other than Java Bali there are some multiplication factors (e.g. Sumatera and Sulawesi is 1.2; Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara (East and West) is 1.3; and Papua is 1.5).

I guess the “staging” concept is still valid. This means in the first 5 or 7 years the developer can get higher feed in price (compared to the averaged price) and in the rest of the contract time, developer will get lower feed in price (compared to the averaged price).

It seems the procedure will be shortened since PLN is obliged to prepare a standardized contract form. This means there is no negotiation (also looking at the set price above). Implementation of projects will hopefully be faster unless PLN applies hard requirements for developers such as for example EBITDA 30% for the last 2 years (maybe PLN itself can not achieve this, although PLN’s move might be based on very rational reason such as preventing PPA holder from being brokers (selling PPA contracts) instead of being serious renewable energy generator developer).

Feed in price problem, that was, some weeks ago, still perceived as problem by some MHP developers is solved. This, according to association of mini hydro developers, is considered as a very good step and it expects a boom of MHP development in the next 3-5 years. The association predicts that the boom can reach 500 MW per year and that will make the industry facing a new problem. How to provide the hardware?

Currently MHP developers are mostly using Chinese or European hardware for their MHP schemes. Chinese products are very much having many varieties of quality. It corresponds with the price. European products usually have consistent quality standard, this means cost is very much fixed (i.e. quite high). There is also new Indonesian manufacturer that has just started into MHP hardware business (turbine) in MW scale. The next challenge to the government is to provide local manufacturers more capacities so that they can benefit from the MHP boom in the next 3-4 years. If local manufacturers can not move fast, all the benefits will go abroad and the overall goal of the new ministerial decree is missed.

The old decree (e.g. 1122/2002) set lower feed in price for interconnection at low voltage (0.6 times marginal cost of production at interconnection point). This new decree sets higher feed in price for interconnection at low voltage. Does this move is a strategy to encourage micro renewable energy generators? I guess this is to encourage such things. However the procedure should be very much shortened for the micro size since, I guess, it will be community based or very small private companies or cooperatives that might not have enough resources to pay the high transaction cost (relative) of interconnection process.

Anyway, although this was quite late (all energy minister should have done this years ago), but this decree is mostly welcomed by players in the sector. They have positive opinion on this and expecting that there will be a boom in the sector. Hydro power might lead the boom since the technology and also resources are already available and assessed so often.

Let's hope for positive development and prepare the necessary actions to tackle possible problems due to this decree.

Micro Hydro Development Roadmap - What to Expect?

Roadmap is basically a schedule for a certain sector to reach certain level. In a roadmap there should be at least time indicator and also milestones for each time indicator. However a roadmap is more complex than just a schedule since all the related milestones bring consequences in all aspects.

For example a roadmap of a bike shop, the main goal is to be the largest bike shop in town in 10 years. The milestones for example are: year one the shop has to sell at least 2 bikes a day; year two the shop has to become authorized distributor for 2 major bike brands and sells 3 bikes a day; year five the store area has to increase from 100 m2 to at least 200 m2 and so on and so on. The consequences that follow that road map can be for example: assess the competitors, develop cycling habits in town, find cheap bicycle supplier, train repair workshops in town, do some cycling activities with local government, increase number of salesmen, develop innovative financial support for bike owners etc.. To be concluded, there are many to do to materialize the roadmap.

Right now the government of Indonesia, especially Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources wants to create a roadmap for micro hydro power. I have not got my hand on it therefore these will be my expectations towards the roadmap. My expectations are:

• The roadmap must have realistic time frame
• The roadmap must have realistic and achievable targets
• The roadmap must not only considering micro hydro technology but also all related policy, standard, education, supporting activities, capacity of industry etc. that will eventually help to develop the market.

What’s a realistic time frame? To my knowledge, developing micro hydro competence in Indonesia took quite long time. Anyone can argue about the beginning of this, but the real and currently is becoming the mainstream of micro hydro development in Indonesia is the technology transfer of cross flow turbine back in early 90’s or late 80’s. Before that time frame government has tried to import technologies from Germany using BPPT’s capacity, in the late 70’s manufacturing capacities have been developed into state owned companies such as Barata, but all did not sustain (there are many reasons but cheap oil price might played the bigger role in it). They ended up as projects without any internalization of the technology. Right now the cross flow technology has reached its peak in Indonesia. It took almost 20 years to develop from zero to the condition right now (although one has to admit that the advance development is only limited to Bandung manufacturers such as Heksa, Cihanjuang and Kramatraya). So, I would say the realistic time frame is 20 years for the next leap. I might be conservative with this time frame because I consider the availability of academic experts that have the capacity in developing micro hydro technology (as the main motor of change in the sector). Like it or not technology must go beyond current status in the next 20 years. Other aspects will be supporting and creating condition for such advancement.

What should be the realistic and achievable target? I would say there are some achievable targets: simpler, reliable and easier to manufacture micro hydro hardware; more implementations not only for rural off grid but also on grid; more dispersed manufacturers; better sustainability of schemes; and better implementation of schemes. Currently the design for simple, reliable and easy to manufacture micro hydro turbine is available therefore it is realistic and achievable. More implementations means there is a need for better policy especially interconnection policy for micro hydro schemes. It is very realistic and is a must actually. More dispersed manufacturer might be the hardest part. Government has to take risks in order to develop new manufacturers so that they can produce quality hardware. Standard has to be established and government has to be strict and stick on its implementation.

Related to all above, the changes in policy, such as interconnection policy, will certainly give significant impact to the progress of micro hydro hardware technology. If there is a positive attitude in the policy there will be a boost in site implementation and local manufacturers will reap the benefit and if the market needs it, they can improve their technology. Not just that, sustainability of the scheme must also be considered. This means all schemes that have been erected must be monitored and supervised if necessary. Government better to prepare a nation wide program that ensures all erected micro hydro scheme are sustainable. Involving all stakeholders is necessary. Academics as the think tank and the source of technological advancement have to make their position strong by doing researches. All have to do their task in a synergistic way.

Last but not least, the roadmap has to be detail and really based on current strength, weaknesses, opportunity and also threads. The one who develops the roadmap has to have vast knowledge of the sector and should know what IPP stands for (i.e. independent power producer).

Cheers

Lessons learned from Brazilian’s Experience

CBS has reported that some blackouts in Brazil (in 2005 and 2007) were caused by some dirty works of bad hackers (see: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/brazil/). The recent massive blackout in Brazil might also the result of bad hackers. This happened two days after CBS reported the possible cause of blackouts in 2005 and 2007.

This has clearly shown that computerized system is very vulnerable to electronic attack. It has shown that total integration is very risky. The centralized software managed control system might be very efficient and also easy to monitor but it is also easy to be attacked. There is no perfect system made by mankind. There are always trade offs. In the case of Brazil, the trade off is easiness to be hacked.

Luckily the system in Indonesia might still very old and manual. No hacking system can do much harm to the system. A real “terrorist style” attack on transformer stations might do better. Moving to centralized software managed control system surely takes a lot of energy and resources and PLN has none of them.

Right now PLN is struggling to normalize power generation and distribution in Jakarta. Kompas reported that the scheduled blackouts might still happen until December. We are used to blackouts therefore we actually need an independent power source like for example personal solar powered electricity generator or “dreaming mode on” fuel cell powered electricity generator (like the one in Japan shown in Discovery channel) or anything like that.

Conclusion: since PLN’s financial condition is not yet very healthy, centralized software managed control system might still far from realization. If it were materialized, there should be a manual back up system so that if the software system fails, the manual system can still do the job.

Merdeka…

Renewable energy: is it not attractive enough for higher education institution?

Renewable energy is currently on the upper side of the coin. The support from government for renewable energy projects is quite significant. From policy point of view, there are also some progresses. Private enterprises are also in the sector for example in the mini hydro sector. This has shown a strong growth of renewable energy.

Despite the significant growth, there are some dark sides in the sector. Not all sub sectors are developed from technological point of view. Solar energy systems are still imported either from China, Japan or Europe. Biomass technology, for example gasification, is not yet developed and the application is very low. Biomass conversion to bio fuel is developing quite significantly. Technology is basically in hand, however innovation is still lacking. Hydro energy, especially for bigger size plants are still importing while at micro level, local technology is already used extensively. In general, Indonesia is still depending on foreign technology.

Depending on foreign technology is not inline with the goal to be energy independent country. If one wants to be independent, then he/she must master the subject (in this case the technology). In the worst case, other country is not willing to sell technology to Indonesia that eventually will hamper the utilization of renewable energy sources and making Indonesia dependent on fossil fuel. Economically this scenario is very frightening.

Let us use micro hydro sub sector as an example. Micro hydro turbine manufacturers in Indonesia are generally manufacturing cross flow, propeller and pelton turbine. Cross flow is the most produced turbine due to easiness to manufacture and average characteristic of micro hydro site in Indonesia falls in the head range of cross flow. In Bandung, manufacturers are supervised by foreign expert therefore they are not 100% independent from foreign influences (in this case foreign capacity in designing turbine). The guidance of foreign expert has made Bandung based manufacturers capable in producing high quality hardware.

Producers outside Bandung have to struggle by themselves. They have to play with their own design. They have to live with the fact that their product might not be as good as Bandung’s. The impact of this condition is potential of frequent break downs of their hardware. This will affect the whole process of renewable energy implementation. Bad hardware gives bad name to micro hydro.

Actually to tackle above mentioned issue, universities can play big role. Universities are the place for research. Academics should be able to innovate especially for renewable energy implementation. Using the same case, micro hydro, almost no higher education institutions do research on micro hydro (e.g. turbine design). Turbine design is not simple. It involves many subjects starting from fluid dynamics to mechanics. It is not just welding metal parts together but also optimizing runner design for better performance. This kind of work should not be done by manufacturers. Universities or research institution must do this. If those that suppose to be centre of knowledge and progress do not do anything on that particular subject, then being energy independent is far from reality.

Why the interest is very little interests or even none? I can only assume here. Maybe because the market is not yet very commercial, therefore private industry is still very limited. Universities are inclined to do research on certain subject if there were any driving force from the market. If the industry is not yet developed then the chance for research in certain subject is also limited. I think this way of thinking is not appropriate. Research will attract industry to join in and make the sector grows.

The second possibility is that universities might see renewable energy technology as not as complicated as other kind of technology such as IT or telecommunication or bio technology or other rocket science things. In Indonesia, there is this funny principle: you will look great and advance if you are using complicated things such as complicated words, complicated gadget, complicated lecture materials etc. So, doing research in simple subjects might be considered as below standard and not making someone great. Although actually, doing research for micro hydro turbine is also a complicated matter.

Another possibility is that because there is no communication between universities and industry (renewable energy industry). Since there is no communication, the need of the industry is not known and university can not match their research resources to what the industry needs. Lack of research fund can also make things worse. The worst possibility is if there are no experts in the subject. This is the worst scenario. No one can do anything without expertise.

Since currently government role is very big, they should not limit their involvement in project implementation but also in research. But before doing so, the government should know the current position and future dream. Based on that information government should know who can do what in the sector. Investment in the form of research initiative will be useful for the purpose of energy independency. This will work as long as the money is not for corruption and the researcher is really capable in the particular subject.

Peace