“Counting Electrons ”

For some paying an electricity bill is a source of pure joy. Such people are those who appreciate the benefits that electricity can give us. It gives us Vivaldi at breakfast time, regular news, computing and life after nightfall. Where would we be without an electric toothbrush? Those busy little electrons really do make our lives busy and full and it is hard to imagine how we could live without them.

PLN are in the business of selling electrons.

“How many electrons would you like sir? Three trillion, certainly sir.”

But it is not so easy, Electrons are not sold by weight or by the gallon, they are so small that the blokes at PLN with their magnifying glasses gave up trying to count them a long time ago. In fact you can't see them, hear them or weigh them, all we can do is measure how much work they do.

PLN Electricity bills are calculated from the 16th of the month to the 15th of the next month and usually issued on the 18th. You have to pay before the 27th??? or you have to pay a penalty.

How do you read the bill? Well let me try and demystify it for you.

Find a bill and get a cup of coffee. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Starting at the top you will see the first few boxes speak for themselves with billing period, address, account number etc.

The first point of note is the “Tarip/Daya”. “Tarip” is the tariff you are on. There are a number of Tariffs S is Sosial, R is Rumah or household, B is Business, I is Industrial, P is Pemerintah or government. The relevant rates for us are the household rates R1, R2 or R3. If you use a LOT of power you may be on a commercial rate such as B2 or something similar.

Every house has a maximum power usage or “Daya”. This is limited by the maximum current (amps) allowed by the main circuit breaker (the big blue switch on your meter). The rate you are charged for power is determined by this maximum power rating. The more power you use the more you pay per unit of power in kilowatt hours or KWH.

For example a Tarip/Daya of R2/4400 means that you are on the R2 tariff and your maximum power usage at any one time is 4400 watts or 4.4 KVA (KVA is Kilo Volt Amps which is the same as kilowatts, watts = amps x volts).

In the upper centre of the bill are the meter readings “Lalu” is the previous reading and “Akhir” is the latest.

“Pemakaian” is the number of kilowatt hours used (Akhir minus Lalu) at a price (“Harga/KWH”) for each kilowatt.

To the right on the bill is “Biaya Bedan” or the fixed charge which you have to pay in addition to the price per unit. This fixed charge also varies according to your Daya. The more power allowance you have the more the fixed charge regardless of how much power you actually use. If you have an allowance of 4,400 watts (4.4 KVA) your fixed charge will be 4.4x Rp30,400 = Rp167,200. If you are on a commercial rate there is no fixed charge but the cost per unit is much higher, probably around Rp 860 per kilowatt.

Below this on the bill is the calculation.

“B.Beban” is the fixed charge before you start.
Blok I, II and III refer to calculations of the “Pemakaian” and the “Harga” above. Blok I is the first 20 or 30 units, Blok II the next 30 or 40 units and Blok III all above. These Bloks are only relevant for Tarip R1.

“B.Meterai” is a stamp duty for legalising the bill usually Rp 3,000 for R tariffs and Rp 6,000 for business tariffs.

Finally tax ”Perhitungan PPJ” of 5% is added (bottom right hand corner).

The grand total due is the “Jumlah Tagihan”, no not at the bottom as you might expect but three quarters of the way down the page.

A summary of domestic Tariffs, Daya's and prices is as follows”

As you can see power is charged on a sliding scale - the more you use the more it costs per unit. If you want that extra air conditioner and you need to go up to a higher allowance then you will pay a higher basic charge and more per unit regardless of how much you use.

In my house I live very comfortably and get by with only 1,300 watts and pay around RP 100,000 a month. I know of a number of people who are on their maximum power allowance. They are paying bills of well over Rp 2 million a month and are still blowing the circuit breakers!

One final thing to understand is “peak load”. A peak load is when by chance many things are consuming power at the same time creating a temporary high demand for electricity. Your maximum allowance needs to be sufficient to satisfy this peak load. If you have a pool, a well pump, a refrigerator, a couple of air conditioners, etc. many of these things switch themselves on and off. By chance many may come on at the same time and then someone goes and puts a slice of bread in the toaster..... You have to plan for this.

Around the world large businesses have saved truckloads of money by managing their peak loading. At the household level a timer on the pool, air conditioners or the water heater may help you smooth your demand and reduce the peaks and therefore reduce the allowance that you need.

What all this means is that if you are careful you can save a lot of money but you may need to plan your usage and ask PLN to reduce your allowance if you want to get the full benefit.

A survey and usage plan may be a worthwhile investment and of course will continue saving you money on a long term basis.

“Sorry can you make that two trillion.”

Phil Wilson

Phil Wilson a project director for Focus Indonesia and a partner of MrFixit property maintenance services. Opinions expressed are those of Phil Wilson. If you have any questions or comments related to property maintenance he can be contacted at the office on 0361 288 789 or through this website.