AI Guzzles Electricity, Indosat Offers AI-Powered Solution to Save Energy

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Indonesia has a goal for its economy to grow by up to 8%. In line with that, many problems must be faced, including those related to energy. M. Danny Buldansyah, Director & Chief Business Officer of IOH, revealed the large energy requirements needed to pursue Indonesia’s economic growth targets. This is compounded by the entry of the AI era, which is extremely power-hungry. “Especially now that we are seeing the era of AI computing data centres that are very, very energy-intensive,” Danny said at the Energy Management Launch in Jakarta on Thursday (23/7/2026). He explained that based on discussions with global AI players and global data centre providers, Indonesia needs at least 1,500 megawatts for AI development within the next two years. This is despite Indonesia having various advantages for AI, from abundant land and talent to prices that are cheaper than neighbouring countries. On the same occasion, Senior VP Head of IoT & Big Data IOH, Melvin Jeffrey Chan, also explained the energy challenges in Indonesia. One of these is related to dependence on coal, which accounts for 68% of the country’s electricity. There are also fire threats due to electrical disturbances that still occur, power outages causing financial losses, and efficiency problems. “Imagine if there is no real-time feasibility and energy management becomes reactive, wasting a lot of increased costs, wasting a lot of money and time just because of facility failures and downtime,” Melvin said. Indosat itself has a variety of solutions that can be provided for energy management. The AI and IoT-based Energy Management solution is implemented with a full-stack approach. The first is the sensing layer for smart sensors and meters, the data layer related to IoT gateways connected to Indosat’s network, and the processing layer for the AI-based analytics platform for dashboards and predictive maintenance. “So, in one stack there is one platform, connecting devices, connectivity, platforms, and applications. Connecting all meters, sensors, and these assets, turning real-time data into AI-based insights, predictive alerts, and remote control reporting,” he said. Several use cases have already utilised Indosat’s solution, such as smart street lighting power monitoring, utility monitoring to lower energy costs by up to 30%, generator and transformer monitoring, and battery monitoring. “This is not just hype. We are talking about potential energy savings of 10% to 15% with a return on investment from 6 to 15 months. Actual energy reduction of 5% to 15% can be captured, and up to 40% of downtime can be planned in advance,” he explained.