The activity is expected to generate reliable, skilled, and competent prospective operators.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry trains 18 people to become centralized solar power plant (PLTS) operators to provide affordable, feasible, and sustainable electricity services, especially in the frontier, outermost, and disadvantaged (3T) areas.

"The activity is expected to generate reliable, skilled, and competent prospective operators," Head of the Center for Human Resources Development for Electricity, New and Renewable Energy, as well as Energy Conservation (PPSDM KEBTKE) of the ministry Laode Sulaeman noted in a statement here on Tuesday.

Sulaeman remarked that the knowledge obtained from the training can be applied to operate the PLTS units that will be built in the training participants’ villages to provide benefits to the community.

The Indonesian government collaborates with the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP’s) Accelerating Clean Energy Access to Reduce Inequality (ACCESS) Project to hold technical training and certification on the operation and maintenance of centralized PLTS.

The training is conducted for the third batch trainees at the PPSDM KEBTKE Campus, Jakarta, on June 2-15, 2022.

Out of the 18 trainees, three participants came from the villages outside the ACCESS Project target.

In addition, the PLTS prospective operators' training is held concurrently with the training and certification for the established 50 local operators.

Some 46 people out of them came from the 23 target villages of the ACCESS project, while the rest were from the villages outside the project target. Some 50 percent of the operators were females.

So far, the certification has been given to 30 local off-grid PLTS operators through the first and second batches of the program.

Sulaeman assessed that PLTS technology will continue to be developed in future, for which skilled and competent personnel will be required in its development and management.

Head of the Environment Unit at UNDP Indonesia Aretha Aprilia said her side fully supports the Indonesian government's attempts to manage the environment in a sustainable manner.

"The (green) initiative was realized through various policies, programs, and projects regarding environmental preservation as well as poverty alleviation and clean energy development, for instance, the ACCESS Project," she remarked.

The readiness of operators is important to operate the PLTS units that are planned to be constructed throughout 2022, she noted.

Aprilia expects that the PLTS units can provide sustainable clean energy for over three thousand families in the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Southeast Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, and Central Kalimantan by 2023.

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Translator: Sugiharto Purnama, Uyu Liman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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