Despite President Prabowo Subianto’s bold pledge to shift Indonesia entirely to renewable energy, a proposal to grant state utility company PLN greater leeway to build new coal-fired power plants, beyond what is currently allowed under a presidential regulation, threatens to undercut that ambition.
Energy analysts warn the exemption could entrench coal’s dominance in the national energy mix and stall momentum for clean power development. It may even derail PLN’s flagship ambition to build a nationwide super grid designed to carry green energy across the archipelago.
Presidential Regulation No. 112/2022, which aims to accelerate renewable energy development, has prohibited the construction of new coal-fired power plants except for projects already in the pipeline before the rule took effect. But during a recent public consultation on revising the regulation, the government floated additional exemptions to the construction of new coal plants, framed as necessary to maintain “system reliability and energy independence”.
Agung Budiono, executive director of energy transition advocacy group Yayasan Indonesia Cerah, opined that the loophole was specifically tailored for strategic industrial sectors.
“It is obvious that this exemption is, in practice, aimed at supporting the mineral downstreaming industry, which has been heavily dependent on captive coal power plants,” Agung told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
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Data from the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) consultation document published in November illustrates the scale of the issue, showing that Indonesia is expected to build 11 gigawatts (GW) of captive coal-fired power plants by 2030.