Values, Rules and Knowledge (VRK) System in the Energy Access Issue: Implication for Development in Rural and Remote Communities

Abstraksi

Ensuring universal energy access represents one of the key priorities in the development agenda of many emerging economies, including Indonesia. As an archipelagic nation with a significant number of low-lying islands and coastal areas, Indonesia is highly prone to the climate change impacts. While the country has committed to the Paris Agreement to contribute in mitigating greenhouse gases emission, future attempts that are based on the centralized fossil fuel-heavy approach to deliver power to communities living in rural areas and remote islands might cause tensions in the overall development scheme. Driven by this conundrum, distributed electricity generation using renewable energy has been perceived as promising solution to the provision of electricity for these communities while also meeting the nexus of both mitigation and adaptation context. Building upon values - rules - knowledge (VRK) system from Gorddard et al. (2016), this paper aims to identify decision contexts for developing renewable energy based electricity generation in rural and remote areas in Indonesia. The research primarily uses the synthesis method based on compilation of various literature in Indonesia and other developing countries. The findings show that most decision making process excludes the possible synergy and trade-off from the intricacy of value, knowledge, and regulation context. Interaction between variables in the VRK system also indicates lack of consideration over societal dynamics and capacity as part of decision making process. Solving energy access issue requires complex understanding of the interplay between stakeholders as well as wide ecological and socio-economic aspects in local communities.