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PLN mulls shutting down Suralaya 3 and 4 coal-fired power plants
State-owned electricity company PLN is considering shutting down the Suralaya 3 and 4 power plants as part of its coal phase-down plan.
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Smoke and steam billow from a coal-fired power plant owned by Indonesia Power in Suralaya, Banten, on July 11, 2020. The plant was next to the Java 9 and 10 coal-fired steam power plant project. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
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tate-owned electricity company PLN is considering shutting down the Suralaya 3 and 4 coal-fired power plants in Banten as part of the firm’s coal phase-down plan, which was slated to begin by reducing electricity production at the Suralaya plants 1 to 4.
The four coal plants boast a total electricity generating capacity of 1.6 gigawatts.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s electricity director general, Jisman Hutajulu, said the government and PLN were still assessing the plan to shut down the plants, including the cost and timeline for its implementation. He added that to date, PLN was still looking for financiers for the program.
“We have yet to start [the shutdown], but there will be more detailed discussions [...] and calculations. After that, there will be [the signing of] an MoU and the financial close; then we can say that the project has begun,” Jisman told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday.
Read also: RI opts for less ambitious option than early coal retirement
Shutting down coal plants, an initiative hindered largely by a lack of funding, is one of the options the country is considering to reduce its electricity oversupply.
The Java and Bali grid had 4 GW of excess electricity supply, Jisman said, which prompted the ministry to push back the launch of operations of several new power plants by two to three years.
