National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) Governor Budi Susilo Soepandji said the degree of Indonesia’s energy sovereignty was very low and that efforts must be made to find renewable energy sources for the benefit of the people’s welfare.
“According to information from various sources, Indonesia’s energy supply and demand situation is quite precarious,” he said at a national congress of the Federation of Pertamina Labor Union at the Pertamina Head Office here on Monday.
He said energy consumption which was growing by an average of 7 percent per year was not accompanied by adequate energy supply.
The country’s dependence on fossil-based energy was still high, accounting for 95.21 percent of its overall energy needs, he said.
The use of renewable energy sources and the implementation of energy conservation programs had not yet been optimal, he said in a paper titled “Energy Resilience and Sovereignty In the Perspective of National Resilience”.
Meanwhile, former lawmaker Permadi said it was difficult for Indonesia to use and develop its energy sources for the benefit of the people while many of those sources were controlled by foreign companies.
As a matter of fact, Indonesian workers, including those of state oil and gas company Pertamina, were capable of managing energy sources on their own, he said.
“How can we become master in our own home if many of Pertamina’s competent workers are made to remain mere spectators,” he said.
He expressed hope that the Pertamina leadership would fully entrust the management of energy sources to its workers rather than to foreign companies.
If the management of energy sources was entrusted to the Indonesian nation the country would have full energy sovereignty and no longer depend on foreign parties, he said.
