Electricity tariffs hold steady through September, giving industry a settled base for efficiency investment

The electricity tariff schedule that took effect on 1 August contains no increases. For households that is welcome. For industrial energy managers it is something more useful. It removes a variable, and it opens a window in which efficiency investments can be appraised against a price that will not move for the rest of the quarter.

What was decided and what it covers

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources set third quarter 2026 tariffs, covering July through September, with no adjustment. Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia stated that the government decided third quarter 2026 electricity tariffs would remain unchanged, in order to maintain household purchasing power and support national economic stability. The ministry also framed the decision as support for industrial competitiveness and as a source of certainty for business planning.

The decision reaches 13 non subsidised customer groups and 24 subsidised groups. The subsidised categories include low income households, social service customers, small businesses, small industry and micro, small and medium enterprises, and none of them see a change.

Under Ministerial Regulation 7 of 2024, tariffs for non subsidised customers are reviewed each quarter against four macroeconomic parameters. The review used realisations from February to April 2026: an exchange rate of Rp16,959.32 per United States dollar, an Indonesian Crude Price of USD 96.12 per barrel, inflation of 0.21 percent, and a reference coal price of USD 70 per tonne, held in line with the domestic market obligation policy for coal.

The numbers industry actually works with

The full schedule effective 1 August sets the following rates. Households on 900 volt ampere non subsidised pay Rp1,352.00 per kilowatt hour, and both the 1,300 and 2,200 volt ampere classes pay Rp1,444.70. Households from 3,500 volt ampere upward pay Rp1,699.53.

The industrial and commercial classes tell a different story. Business customers between 6,600 volt ampere and 200 kilovolt ampere, class B-2/TR, pay Rp1,444.70 per kilowatt hour. Above 200 kilovolt ampere, class B-3 at medium and high voltage pays Rp1,114.74. Industrial customers above 200 kilovolt ampere, class I-3/TM, pay Rp1,114.74. The largest industrial class, I-4/TT at 30,000 kilovolt ampere and above, pays Rp996.74. Government offices on class P-1/TR pay Rp1,699.53, class P-2/TM pays Rp1,522.88, street lighting on P-3/TR pays Rp1,699.53, and the special class L across all voltages pays Rp1,644.52.

A large factory connected at high voltage buys electricity at roughly 59 percent of the rate paid by the government office next door. The tariff structure already rewards scale and voltage level. Efficiency is the one lever that works at every point on that ladder.

Why a stable price is an opening rather than a pause

Stable tariffs are sometimes read as a reason to defer efficiency work. The opposite case is stronger, for three reasons.

Predictable prices make savings calculations reliable. An efficiency business case rests on the value of avoided kilowatt hours. When the tariff is fixed for a defined period and the review methodology is published, the projected saving can be stated with confidence rather than hedged. That is precisely the certainty an investment committee asks for.

Stable input costs also free management attention. When energy prices move, energy teams spend their time on procurement, hedging and budget revision. When prices hold, the same teams can work on load profiles, equipment performance and process improvement, which is where durable savings originate.

And a price freeze is finite by design. The methodology is quarterly. Rather than assume the current level is permanent, the reasonable planning response is to use the stable period to complete audits, approve projects and place equipment orders, so that improvements are in service before the next review cycle.

The ministry itself paired the announcement with an appeal for the public to be prudent and efficient in energy consumption, as part of strengthening national energy resilience. That appeal applies with greater force to industrial users, whose individual decisions move far more kilowatt hours.

Where the savings sit for Indonesian industry

For most manufacturers the recoverable savings are unglamorous and well documented. Energy audits conducted under national programmes have repeatedly identified the same categories.

Motor and pump systems fitted with variable speed drives, rather than running at fixed speed and throttling output, typically cut consumption on those circuits substantially. Cooling systems, including chillers and cooling towers, reward both equipment renewal and better control. Compressed air, often the most expensive utility per unit of useful work in a plant, leaks persistently and is rarely metered separately. Manual operation without automatic control has been identified in national audit work as a recurring constraint on efficiency, because it prevents equipment from tracking actual demand.

Above the equipment layer sits the management system. Government Regulation 33 of 2023 and the earlier energy conservation framework require large users, historically those above 6,000 tonnes of oil equivalent per year, to appoint an energy manager, conduct periodic audits and implement audit recommendations. Facilities that treat this as a live operating discipline, with real time monitoring and sub metering, capture savings that facilities treating it as documentation do not.

Sirkularium's view

For government and public institutions, three points follow from this quarter's decision.

On policy, the tariff review methodology is a communication asset that could be used more deliberately. Because the four parameters are published and the cycle is fixed, the ministry is in a position to give industrial users a forward view of the framework, which strengthens efficiency business cases without committing to any particular future price. Certainty about method is valuable even where the level itself is uncertain.

On public sector practice, the P-1/TR and P-2/TM classes are worth noting. Government offices buy electricity at Rp1,699.53 and Rp1,522.88 per kilowatt hour respectively, above the industrial classes. Public buildings are therefore among the highest value targets for efficiency work in the country, and savings there fall directly to public budgets. A government office that reduces consumption by a fifth releases funds that can be redeployed to service delivery.

On implementation, this is a good moment to strengthen the link between energy audits and financing. Audits identify savings; the gap is usually the capital to act on them. Facilitating energy service company contracts, where a third party funds the works and is repaid from verified savings, would let more of the identified potential be realised without new subsidy.

A tariff that does not move for three months is an invitation to reduce the number of kilowatt hours it applies to.

What to watch next: the parameters that shape the fourth quarter review, whether industrial users use the current period to complete audits and approve projects, and whether public buildings, which face the higher tariff classes, are included in the next round of national efficiency programming.