With the development of technology, currently the use of water resources is increasingly diverse. Rivers as abundant water resources in Indonesia are potential alternative power plants. This is in line with the fact that the demand for electricity continues to increase every year.
From 1945 the national electricity demand was 157 MW and then increased to 258 MW in 1955. Ten years later this demand had almost doubled to 460 MW. However, this increase is still relatively small when compared to the growth in demand for the next ten years, namely to 1,129 MW in 1975, and 3,935 MW at the end of 1983. In the same period (1983), PT. PLN (Persero) has conducted a study of hydropower potential for power plants throughout Indonesia, covering 1,275 locations with a total potential of 75,000 MW, however, until now the potential that has been utilized is only about 21,000 MW. Seeing the huge potential, the opportunity for the development of hydropower for electricity generation in Indonesia is still quite large.
One of these potentials is the development of the Malea hydropower plant that utilizes the Saddang River. The Saddang River in Tana Toraja has an average annual discharge of 129.9m3/s. So that the Saddang river becomes a river that has the potential to produce electrical energy.
In accordance with the vision and mission of PT Malea Energy, the selection of development sites in eastern Indonesia is for regional development through infrastructure development and hydroelectric power generation.