PLN planning smart grid pilot project in Jakarta, Batam, and Bangka. This was revealed Suroso Isnandar, secretary Tim Smart Grid PLN in a panel discussion held in the Business for Environment Summit event on Thursday (28/4/11) at the Shangri La Hotel, Jakarta.

Suroso said that the current pilot project plan was still under review. However, he said, "Investing for the pilot project will not be much because we are doing on a small scale first."

Investment is valued less than the micro hydro development. The pilot project is planned to be using technology that has been established.

"The technology already exists will be utilized as much as possible. We are going to study and asses, so baseball origin of new technology we apply," he said.

According Suroso, the implementation of smart grids in large scale is still a long term process. Even in developed countries like Europe, this technology is still relatively new. While in Asian countries like Korea, is generally performed still pilot projects. He said PLN would not immediately jump.

"Visibilitasnya should be studied first. Because of the smart grid is related to the investment problem, the problem of money. If we apply, the impact will be beneficial for our baseball," he explained.

Currently, Suroso said the company was still trying to seek the adequacy of resources so that the whole society will have electricity, network reliability, and improve service quality. Smart grids will provide added value if these three basic things have been fulfilled.

To implement smart grid, there are several challenges that must be faced. In terms of electrical load settings for example, Suroso said, "That was their participation is still voluntary. We can not tamper with your load if you do not have a deal."

By having an agreement, then PLN can perform certain steps. "For example we switch off the socket into the washing machine so that at certain hours of the washing machine can not be used. Then there are several other steps that we can do more," explained Suroso.

Suroso said, on one element that is seeking a smart grid electricity from renewable energy based small power plant, the private sector can play a part to encourage the implementation of smart grids. "For example, based on wind, solar, microhydro. In principle, the grid is open to it," he said.

At present, measures such as taking electricity produced by micro hydropower plant has been conducted in several areas, such as West Java and Banjarnegara. However, the numbers are still small because it comes from plants under 10 MW capacity.

Smart grid is an intelligent technology integration in the electricity network, both the generation, distribution and consumer level. The technology can be applied include communication and control, such as smart meters and load control or load settings.