- Antara/ M Ali Khumaini
VIVAnews - State electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) said Indonesia has the highest number of prepaid electricity users worldwide with five million subscribers.
“Indonesia will remain the number-one country in prepaid electricity users globally,” said PLN President Director, Nur Pamudji, in Jakarta on Thursday.
Based on PLN’s data, the number of prepaid electricity users in Indonesia has outnumbered South Africa, which who has applied the prepaid system since 1993. Currently, South Africa only has four million prepaid electricity subscribers.
The five million customers are scattered in 27 provinces throughout Indonesia. Most of them live in Java and Bali. West Java and Banten have the highest number of 1,663,528 subscribers; East Java, 853,685 subscribers; Central Java and Yogyakarta, 581,443 subscribers; Jakarta and Tangerang 486,599 subscribers; and Bali 216,259 subscribers.
In West Nusa Tenggara, there are 206,505 subscribers, the highest in the eastern region of Indonesia followed by East Nusa Tenggara with 120,179 subscribers. As for the western region of Indonesia, Palembang holds the highest number of 138,772 subscribers. Meanwhile, there are 4,919 subscribers in Batam.
For the time being, the number of prepaid electricity users in the Household category has reached 11 percent of the total of 42.5 million household subscribers. Almost all of South Africa’s four million household subscribers use prepaid electricity.
PLN declared the selection of prepaid meter technology in which international standard and an open system are applied has been one of the key successes. Many prepaid meter manufacturers can participate in providing meters, making the meter price competitive and offering better post-sale services.
The company partners with seven prepaid meter manufacturers in Indonesia.
Another supporting factor is the availability of a network that provides “Smart Electricity” credits for subscribers, supported by banking system and online transaction network.
“In addition to buying credits via banking services, subscribers can also get vouchers from the nearest PLN counters as well as other counters that sell prepaid electricity vouchers,” said PLN Director of Planning and Risk Management, Murtaqi Syamsuddin.
