People Obliged To Save Electricity: VP

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla appealed to the people to save electricity in an effort create national energy resilience.

"Besides building power plants with a 35,000 MW capacity, electricity can also be developed through efficient use of power supply," the Vice President said when opening the Sixth Congress of the Indonesian Electricity Society (MKI) here on Thursday.

He said that most of the power consumption in the country was used for air-conditioning (AC) both at home and offices. "If possible, the AC should not be turned on at below 25 degrees and one should not forget to turn-off their electronic devices unless they are being used," Jusuf Kalla said.

He said that Japan was successful in overcoming its energy crisis in 1974 with its efficiency drive. Now Indonesia should also applied the same thing. The electricity crisis that hit several areas in Indonesia was caused by miscalculation, according to Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

"Electricity crisis occurs, because we have, so far, made incorrect calculation and planning and thought that the electricity demand was aligned with economic growth," the vice president remarked.

Kalla explained that if the economic growth reaches six percent, electricity demand will increase by nine percent; and if the population increases by 1.5 percent, electricity demand will increase by 15 percent. The vice president noted that the government should increase its power generation capacity by 10 thousand megawatts (MW) every three years to meet the country's electricity demand. (WDY)