| Popis: |
Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurated the nation’s first operational wind turbine park on July 2nd, 2018: the Sidrap Wind Park (75 MW) in South Sulawesi. A second of its kind, the Tolo 1 Wind Park (72MW), is expected to start operations any time soon in the same region. Together, these parks amount to just over 5% of the total installed power capacity in South Sulawesi. Integrating this amount of variable renewable power into the grid is new for PLN and amidst enthusiasm there is also hesitation1 to expand further beyond 5-10% in relatively small grids like that of South Sulawesi. With ever increasing competitiveness of solar and wind power, integrating large amounts of variable power into the grid is becoming more and more relevant. For policy makers, the important question is whether and when integration of variable renewable energy is likely to become an obstacle to achieve energy diversification ambitions (National Energy Policy) and climate targets (Paris Agreement). This policy brief presents a number of considerations related to integrating variable renewable power into a power grid, looks at how these relate to the Indonesian energy context, and offers direction to prepare for future integration of significant levels of solar and wind energy in emerging power grids |
