The ADB Board approved on 24 November the $600 million results-based loan to help the country’s state-owned power company, State Electricity Corporation (PLN) expand electricity access and promote renewable energy in eastern Indonesia. The RBL also includes two grants, at $3 million each, from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction and the Asia Clean Energy Fund.
This is the second phase of the Sustainable Energy Access in Eastern Indonesia–Electricity Grid Development Program that supports efforts by PLN to expand electricity access and improve service reliability in nine provinces in the outer regions of Kalimantan, Maluku, and Papua. It builds on the progress of the first phase that helped increase the number of new customers by 1.53 million, exceeding the program’s target of 1.37 million. The second phase of the program aims to provide electricity to 1.55 million new customers by 2024 across the nine provinces.
The grant from the Asia Clean Energy Fund will help renewable energy plants apply advanced technologies to improve system design and maintenance. The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction grant will support measures to install power connections for poor households and help PLN conduct a longitudinal social and gender impact assessment. The project processing team was led by now SEEN Director Toru Kubo.
On 26 November, the Electricity Grid Modernization concessional loan was likewise approved by the ADB Board that will provide financing in the amount of $156 million to upgrade the transmission and distribution system in Nepal.
The project will, among others, automate 34 existing grid substations, install 220-kilovolt (kV) and 132-kV automated grid substations, construct a total of 113 kilometers (km) of new transmission lines, upgrade 144 km of existing transmission lines with efficient conductors, and expand the installation of smart meters for 350,000 electricity consumers in the Kathmandu Valley. An electricity distribution system command and control center in Kathmandu will also be constructed. The project team is led by SAEN’s Jiwan Acharya.