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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Tuesday that steps were being taken to help the country cope with the rapidly rising demand for fuel and electricity.

The government, he said, is reducing the nation’s overreliance on nonrenewable fuels as a source of energy while increasing efficiencies in energy consumption.

“We want to make sure that both policies are implemented correctly and technology can play its part,” the president said.

“We have to make changes in our daily lives, realizing that someday energy will reach its crisis point, and we can solve that by being more efficient in consuming energy.

“We will also implement a mixed energy policy in keeping with the global effort to preserve environmental sustainability.”

The government, he said, will impose a tighter grip on the use of subsidized fuel, while a conversion from gasoline to natural gas for Indonesia’s industrial and consumer needs is under way to mitigate soaring fuel prices.

“The option that we have chosen for fuel and electricity consumption is to regulate fuel usage,” Yudhoyono said. “We will prevent excessive spending so subsidies can decrease. In the future, we want to make sure these subsidies are used by people who deserve them, and in a figure proportional to our state budget.”

Jero Wacik, the energy and mineral resources minister, said Indonesia was exploring alternative energy sources.

“We have natural gas, geothermal, wind and sun. This is what we are aiming [to harness],” he said. “Cutting down subsidized fuel is a short-term solution.”

Yudhoyono last week launched three power plants; two in Banten and one in Central Java. The plants have a total production capacity of 1,600 megawatts as the country aims to boost production to the overtaxed Java and Bali electricity grid.

Yudhoyono also broke ground on the upgrade of an oil refinery in Cilacap, Central Java. The government and state-run oil company Pertamina are aiming for fuel self-sufficiency by 2018.

Pertamina currently produces 41 million kiloliters per year, far lower than the estimated 56 million kiloliters that the nation consumed last year.

Indonesia produces up to five million barrels of oil per day.

“That is huge. But in the next 10 to 15 years, there will be a surge in demand,” Yudhoyono said.

He said one of the aims of the nation’s development plan was to produce more fuel and coal than it consumes so that its surplus energy could be sold.

He said that given the country’s sprawling geography, a good distribution system would be critical to make energy accessible and affordable.

Pertamina sells subsidized fuel at Rp 4,500 (50 cents) per liter, but in more remote parts of the archipelago, the same fuel can cost up to Rp 10,000 a liter.

The power plants and upgraded refinery are projected to generate combined employment of 21,000 to 23,000 jobs.

Pertamina’s $1.4 billion Cilacap upgrade is expected to boost gasoline production at the facility by 1.9 million kiloliters per year.