Deceleration of the development of city gas connections amidst the covid-19 pandemic in the metropolitan area

Prima, A.; Ridaliani, O.; Hamid, A.; Pramadika, H.; Sanusi, H. P.; Rinanti, A.

The National Energy Policy captured the basis for renewable energy development in Indonesia and also specified a national target for the optimal energy mix. For these fundamental reasons, several unprecedented strategies, blueprints, and collaborations are to be explored in the long term. Apparently, one of the key objectives was to exploit natural gas as the primary and eco-friendly energy resource. This profitable gas was projected to significantly contribute a minimum of 22% of total energy toward enhancing economic growth. Approximately, 10 million city gas connections are required by 2025, in order to achieve the set goals. However, a gap exists between the initially planned city gas connections to the distribution network, and the realization during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. This global phenomenon poses a challenge to virtually all economic segments, including energy, as the demand plummeted drastically. Based on Indonesia’s National Energy Policy, the first proposed target was to develop 266,070 gas connections. The project was subsequently adjusted to 127,864. Surprisingly, the realization surpassed the new arrangement by over 6% or was about 135,286. However, the figures obviously comprehended 50.84% of the projects were stalled, contrary to the vision of constructing a minimum of 10 million city gas pipe connections in 2025. This study provided a profound description of the impact of the reduction in abovementioned development on the expected outcome, using the multivariable regression method. The results revealed 96.92% of data from the applied variables were able to describe the developed linear model.