The state of energy poverty in Indonesia and its impact on welfare

Abstract

Indonesia has committed to ensure universal energy access by 2030. However, there is a lack of framework to identify who are the energy poor and to what extent providing energy access can improve people's welfare. We evaluated energy poor into three situations: (i) energy spending more than 10% of total spending; (ii) no access to electricity; and (iii) electricity consumption below 32.4 kWh per month per household. We analysed household and village surveys. The study showed three important findings. First, the range of energy poverty based on expenditure criteria was about 53% and, based on electricity consumption, was about 22% of total households. Non-energy-poor households spend more on food (16.2%) and non-food (24.3%) than energy-poor families. Finally, access to electricity and modern cooking fuel reduced the rate of malnutrition in the village. We suggest that government provides more support to improve energy access to people who do not have access to it and to subsidise public transport. Finally, productivity and efficiency in energy use need to be improved amongst the poor.