Perceived and reported reliability of the electricity supply at three urban locations in Indonesia

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the reliability of electricity supply at three different locations in Indonesia, namely in Sumatra, Timor, and Papua, through a comparison of reported indices of power reliability (SAIFI and SAIDI) and experimental results from user surveys and power measurements. The reason for this study is the lack of information about the actual, quantified reliability of power supplied by the main grid in Indonesia, while narratives of end-users indicate the reliability might be unsatisfactory. The study was executed using data from 114 randomly-selected respondents in the city of Pekanbaru in Sumatra, 65 in the city of Kupang in Timor and 26 in the city of Jayapura in Papua, totaling 205 respondents. These users experienced a higher unavailability of power delivered by the grid than expressed by the utility-reported SAIDI and SAIFI. Therefore, for this study, new indices are introduced, namely the Perceived (P) SAIDI and SAIFI, which are based on the frequency and duration of blackouts experienced by the users. It is concluded that the reported reliability indices do not always demonstrate the experience of the grid users. P-SAIFIs were 1.3 to 4.6 times higher in Pekanbaru and Kupang, respectively than the utility-reported SAIFIs for the same provinces. Also, P-SAIDIs were 2.6 to 3.9 times higher in Pekanbaru and Kupang, respectively, than the utilities' SAIDIs. It is therefore not surprising that depending on the location, 14% to 65% of the users own a backup generator and that households are willing to pay $3 to $8 extra per monthly electricity bill or $1c-$3c per kWh for improved reliability.

Original languageEnglish
Article number140
JournalEnergies
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2018
Externally publishedYes

Funding

Acknowledgments: We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided for this project by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP). Also, we highly appreciate the expert support provided by the Advanced Research on Innovations in Sustainability and Energy (ARISE) of the University of Twente (The Netherlands) and constructive comments by the editors and anonymous reviewers. Data were supported by PLN offices in Riau, ENT, and Papua. Measurements were accommodated by the Faculty of Science and Technology of UIN Suska Riau University in Pekanbaru and BMKG Offices in Kupang and Jayapura. Questionnaires were delivered with access to respondents arranged by students at the Department of Electrical Engineering at UIN Suska Riau University in Pekanbaru, Kumar Saputra and Ansel Mustalo in Kupang, and Jusuf Haurissa and Suyatno of the USTJ in in Jayapura.

Keywords

  • Electricity
  • Grid
  • Indonesia
  • Reliability
  • User experiences

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