Energy conservation lacks govt support: Experts

Berni K. Moestafa and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

More than two decades of having an official energy policy did little to raise public awareness about energy conservation, as the absence of political will and regulations have rendered the policy ineffective, experts said on Monday.

In 1980 the government founded the Energy Coordination Body (Bakoren) to, among other things, promote energy conservation. Its message though is either unheard-of or unheeded by the public at large.

Indonesians use 200 million light bulbs every year that consume five times the amount of energy of fluorescent lights, according to state-owned electricity company PT PLN.

On the roads, the steady rise in fuel prices has not motivated motorists to cut back their fuel consumption.

Whatever the government was aiming for when it launched the 1980 energy conservation policy, it has yet to show any results 22 years later.

One expert said ideas on conservation should not stop at concepts but must transpire into clear regulations and standards.

"A concept on energy conservation will remain a concept, no matter how well designed it is," said Achmad Safruddin, chairman of a government joint team to eradicate the use of leaded fuel.

He said concepts demanded regulations for them to work.

To this end, the presence of an energy law is imperative, said Titovianto Widyantoro.

Titovianto is in charge of implementing energy conservation policies at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

"All our policies are non-binding. If you want people to stick to them we need a law," Titovianto said.

Bakoren was set up to be a meeting point between energy, environmental and economic interests. Coordination was intended to ensure energy policies did not stir conflicts among the three interest areas.

According to Titovianto, energy conservation is one of the three main policies outlined under Bakoren's first policy.

The other two are energy diversification and intensification, which deal with expanding the country's energy resources.

Now Bakoren has five main policies, a pricing policy and an environment policy in addition to the original three, he said.

But as Bakoren jostles with five different interest groups, Achmad said, conservation often loses out against the other four.

"The government keeps prioritizing regulations that only serve short term economic interests," he said.

This approach, according to him, came at the expense of regulations that support sustainable development.

Achmad said the absence of regulations had caused the government to treat the entire energy issue half-heartedly.

Bakoren energy policies served as a guideline for industries that lack the legal power of enforcement, Titovianto added.

Plans for an energy law surfaced about six years ago, but they never came through, because "apparently nobody thinks it is urgent".

The government did submit an energy bill to the legislature about a year ago, he said, but its fate remains unclear.

He said the law essentially meant arming the energy policy with legal teeth. Government regulations would provide details for effective implementation.

But Titovianto said it was unclear whether the birth of an energy law would also mean the end of Bakoren's policies.

"The law is by itself of a higher rank than the policies, however, that doesn't mean we must abandon them," he said.

With the energy bill already proceeding slowly, energy conservation has fallen further behind on the government's priority scale as no budget has been set aside this year to finance public campaigns.

"Other ministries handle similar campaigns. We still have a say but no longer control the budget," Titovianto said.

But overall, the entire budget on energy conservation does appear small.

Titovianto is one of just three officials handling the country's energy conservation issue nationwide.

"Obviously, there aren't enough of us," he noted.

His three-man team took advantage of rising energy costs since the 1997 economic crisis, to get public awareness on energy conservation snowballing.

Pressured by a tight state budget, the government has been cutting back on fuel subsidy spending since 1997 through a series of price hikes.

Industries pay their fuel at 75 percent of market prices, and the government expects to completely phase out fuel subsidies by 2004.

Titovianto said this situation has driven companies to seek other energy sources and increase efficiency in fuel usage.

Using seminars and workshops to introduce the concept of saving energy, industries picked up the issue and made it their own.

Forums of different industries emerged to exchange information on how to use energy efficiently. Now Titovianto and his two partners have trouble coping with the rising information demand.

"We're more like coordinating this, and we help forums hold their own seminars," he explained.

But Achmad emphasized that we should not expect people to develop awareness about energy conservation on their own. "Basically people like to do what they want, so we have to impose standards and strict regulations for them to comply with," he said.