Burdened by oil imports and subsidies for more than 5000 diesel power plants, Indonesia aims to use crude palm oil (CPO) as fuel in the power plants. Previous studies only focused on the technical feasibility of using CPO. Therefore, this study aimed to enrich the existing literature by analyzing the technical feasibility of using CPO, degummed CPO, and bleached palm oil (BPO) fuels on endurance test for 500 operational hours with a 20 kW diesel engine capacity for each type of fuels. Our analysis included component rating and the measurement of specific fuel consumption, emissions, oil dilution, and deposit materials. The assessment concluded that diesel engines using CPO, BPO, and degummed CPO increased specific fuel consumption, deposit formation, and emissions of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide compared to engines using a 30% FAME blend in HSD or Biodiesel 30. This implies that CPO, BPO, and degummed CPO could be used in diesel engines, though fuel consumption and maintenance costs tend to increase. Based on the test results, we provided an efficient CPO supply chain from CPO mills to diesel power plants.

Electricity subsidies in Indonesia remain high and tend to increase. Existing studies generally propose electricity subsidy reform through economic price adjustment; however, this option potentially arises political and social conflicts. The government and the State Electricity Company have also undertaken several measures to decrease electricity supply costs but those measures remain ineffective due to increasing energy prices needed as fuels for power generations. Our study analyses the effectiveness of two alternative grants for LED lamps and rooftop photovoltaic (PV), to reduce electricity subsidies for low-income residential customers with 450 VA and 900 VA electricity capacity limits. The analysis result is that replacing existing lamps with LED lamps for all those customers will cost the government US$ 313.7 million but potentially decrease electricity subsidies to US$ 208.7 million/year for 15 years. On the other hand, installing the rooftop PV system is ineffective to bring down the electricity subsidies. The investment cost of the on-grid rooftop PV system is between US$ 827.6 and US$ 1,310.3 per house, while the electricity subsidy savings for 20 years are between US$ 724.1 and US$ 744.8.