Jakarta, Heaptalk — Electrifying Agriculture (EA) Program from PT PLN (Persero) has received a high demand for agriculture, fisheries, and plantations until livestocks. By the end of 2023, the number of EA Program customers had surpassed 241.700 people. That result was increasing 25% compared to 2022 that only had 193.058 customers.
For information, the EA Program is PLN’s innovation to invite those actors in the agriculture sector to proceed using electricity machinery products to be more advanced and modern.
The CEO of PLN Darmawan Prasodjo explained, through the EA program, PLN wants to support businessmen in the agriculture sector to improve productivity and operational efficiency that will lead to increased profits. This program also created business activities to be environmentally friendly.
“Through this program, we are trying to initiate a Creating Shared Value (CSV) for locals and the surrounding environment. We believe with various usage of electricity-based agricultural technology innovation can drive business actors to be more advanced and it will help increase their productivity significantly rather than using fossil energy,” Darmawan stated.
Until the end of 2023, the total energy connected to the EA program is 3.647 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA) or increased for 16% from 2022 that was only reached 3.128 MVA.
On top of that, the electricity consumption for the EA program is also increasing. At the end of 2023, the electricity consumption reached for more that 5,12 Terawatt hour (TWh), it increased 9% compared to 2022 that was only 4,66 TWh.
The EA program is also a part of the company’s strategic plan in an attempt to support poverty alleviation through the electricity sector.
“Through this EA program we also assist the government to strengthen the national food security,” said Darmawan.
As a result of his leadership on initiating the EA program, Darmawan received the Main Green Leadership at the PROPER Environmental Award and Regional Environmental Management Performance 2023 that was held by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) in December 2023.
For the rest of 2023, the EA program also received several awards, notably the 2023 BUMN Corporate Communications and Sustainability Summit (BCOMSS) for the Creating Shared Value category that was held by the Ministry of BUMN in March and 2023 Gold Winner ‘The Most Promising Company in Strategic Marketing’ for the BUMN Entrepreneurial Marketing Awards that was held by MarkPlus in June.
In September, PLN received a 2023 TrenAsia ESW Award under the BUMN category with an act of implementing the best principles of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) and the 2023 Indonesian Innovation Award in the category gp Best Sustainability from the Indonesian Stock Exchange. PLN also received Indonesia’s SDGs Action Awards from the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (PPN/Bappenas), as well as Indonesia CSR Award in December.
D’Shafa Farming Women’s Group (KWT), one of the EA program’ customers in East Jakarta has felt the benefits from this electricity-based technological innovation. With the smart farming method that is used in Edufarm Malakasari Agro-tourism, making an increase for the turnover from previous result with the range of USD5,149 to USD8045 (USD1 equals Rp15,536) for every month.
The leader of KWT Haryati revealed, the Edufarm Malakasari’s harvest has escalated to 60% from previously only 50 Kg to 80 Kg after implementing the smart farming.
“Fortunately, we start using smart farming in the Summer/Dry Season, in other locations the harvest is not optimal, even fails. However, in Edufarm Malakasari is the opposite, we succeeded in securing the harvest,” said Haryati.
EA program was also able to improve productivity and rice milling business income Trading Business (UD) 2 Putri in Demak, Central Java. The owner of UD 2 Putri, Nurul, claimed to have succeeded in doubling rice milling production ever since shifted from diesel to electric-based rice mill.
“Before using electric-based, we could only mill the rice for 5 tons per day, after using the electric rice mill our production doubled to 10 tons per day,” Nurul admitted.
Nurul added, since doing an additional power from 105 kiloVolt Ampere (kVA) to 197 kVA in June 2023, the operating and machine controlling are getting easier, with much affordable price, and the work environment is also cleaner along with a stable power availability.
A similar experience revealed from the Production Manager PT Niki Tunggal in Lumajang Regency, East Java, Didik who felt the chicken cultivation productivity has increased to 20% and can save production costs on using PLN electricity. For 1.000 laying hens after 12 weeks of maintenance, using an electrical cage it can produce 10.000 eggs, while formerly only 8.000 eggs using PLN electricity.
“After using PLN electricity, the production cost went down to 15% so it can alleviate production efficiency. Another benefit is the heat from this electricity is highly efficient to maintain the chicken cage temperature and humidity, moreover we also provide food and water using electricity automatically,” concluded Didik closing the press release.
Editorial team: Wulan Dari, Prazna Alyfia Ghefira
