Energy saving remains alien to Indonesians
Energy saving remains alien to Indonesians
JAKARTA (JP): Energy conservation remains a foreign concept to
most Indonesians despite an official campaign launched 15 years
ago, experts said on Saturday.
Energy users, whether for industry, transportation or
households, remain largely wasteful, Hasbia Armia of the Energy
Awareness Foundation told Antara.
Not even a presidential executive order supporting the energy
conservation campaign issued in 1991 has had any major impact,
Hasbi, the foundation's secretary, said.
The foundation plans a series of activities this year to
reinvigorate the campaign. They include a seminar, the launching
of a book on the subject, and sponsoring the production of a quiz
show on the subject of energy conservation, which will be aired
by TPI in July.
Yus Sadewa, another foundation official, blamed low public
awareness about conservation energy on the relatively low energy
prices, public misperception of unlimited petroleum supply, and
lack of energy-saving technology.
In spite of a drive to reduce dependence on petroleum in the
past decade, oil still supplies 65 percent of Indonesia's energy
needs. The rest are supplied by natural gas (21 percent), coal
(7.5 percent) and other sources (4.7 percent).
Hasbi said Indonesia should start making serious efforts to
conserve energy in the Seventh Five-Year Plan which begins in
1999.
The country could save the equivalent of 110 million barrels
of oil during the five-year period. In monetary terms, this means
a saving of Rp 4 trillion ($1.75 billion) at current oil prices
of $20 a barrel, he said.
Hasbi said Indonesia should use its energy resources more
efficiently, even though the country still has a relatively low
per capita energy consumption.
Per capita energy consumption in Indonesia was put at 0.37
tons of oil equivalent (TOE) in 1993. The rate is 7.86 TOE in the
United States, 3.64 TOE in Japan and 0.70 TOE in Thailand.
Inefficiency
Measuring energy consumption in terms of per unit of the Gross
Domestic Product shows the inefficiency of energy uses in
Indonesia, Hasbi said.
In Indonesia, the rate is put at 619 TOE for every million
U.S. dollar. This means that to produce one million dollars of
GDP, Indonesia needs 619 TOE of energy.
The U.S., which has the highest per capita energy consumption,
needs 397 TOE to produce one million dollars of GDP, while Japan
needs 154 TOE, Hasbi said.
Experts have predicted that barring a major oil discovery,
Indonesia's oil reserves would be exhausted within 17 years.
Experts and officials have also said that Indonesia would
become a net oil importer at the turn of the century because of a
combination of rapid rising demand and depleting oil reserves.
The government is currently considering introducing nuclear
energy but the move has been widely opposed by environmental
groups. (01)