Normative and Constitutional Challenges to Private Sector Involvement in the Electricity Sector of Indonesia
Yuzon Sutrirubiyanto Nova

Doctoral Program in Law, Universitas Islam Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

Private sector involvement in Indonesia^s electricity sector raises serious challenges from legal, economic, and social justice perspectives. Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution mandates that branches of production essential to the state and affecting the people^s livelihood must be controlled by the state, including electricity. However, regulatory developments, particularly Law No. 30 of 2009 on Electricity, have broadly expanded private participation. This creates normative contradictions between constitutional provisions, Constitutional Court rulings rejecting full liberalization, and legislative practices with a liberal orientation. Such conditions highlight the urgent need to reformulate private sector involvement in line with state control and social justice principles. This study aims to analyze normative disharmony in electricity regulation, evaluate the implications of privatization for the people^s right to energy, and propose a reformulation of electricity policy grounded in constitutional state control. The research applies a normative juridical method through statute, case, conceptual, and comparative approaches, combined with qualitative literature analysis. The novelty of this study lies in integrating constitutional law analysis with the theory of public service obligation (PSO) and the perspective of equitable access to electricity, offering a new dimension to debates on privatization. The findings reveal that excessive private involvement fosters legal inconsistencies, strengthens private dominance in vital sectors, and leads to unequal electricity access. Therefore, restructuring is required through revision of the Electricity Law, strengthening PLN as the main state instrument, and reaffirming electricity as a public service to achieve social justice and public welfare.

Keywords: Electricity Sector, State Control, Private Sector Involvement

Topic: Law and Ethics in Terms of Islamic Perspective