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)