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Government to shut down 13 coal-fired power plants
As many as 13 coal-fired power plants have a total capacity of 4.8 gigawatts (GW) and generate 66 million tonnes of carbon emissions, and some of them will naturally shut down by 2030 without intervention.
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A bus travels near the Cirebon-1 coal-fired power plant on Oct. 18, 2020, in Cirebon, West Java. The Asian Development Bank has agreed to help state-owned electricity company PLN retire the plant 15 years early. (Antara/Yudhi Mahatma)
T
he government plans to shut down or decommission 13 coal-fired power plants (PLTU) owned by state-owned electricity firm PLN, an official said.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s director general for renewable energy Eniya Leistiani Dewi said that the list included the Suralaya powerplant in Cilegon, Banten, and the Ombilin powerplant in Sawahlunto, West Sumatra.
"Three coal retirement studies were conducted: one by us, one by ITB [Bandung Institute of Technology] and one by UNOPS [United Nations Office for Project Services]," Eniya said on Tuesday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
“From these studies, we identified a list of 13 power plants outside of Cirebon [in West Java].”
Eniya said these 13 power plants have a total capacity of 4.8 gigawatts (GW) and generate 66 million tonnes of carbon emissions. She also mentioned that some plants would naturally shut down by 2030 without intervention.
"Some of the plants are old. As the [energy] minister said, they will retire naturally if left alone. There's a list of those expected to shut down before 2030," she said.
Eniya added that the ministry is developing a road map for retiring coal-fired power plants, which will be issued as a ministerial decree.
The road map will detail the criteria and process for deciding which plants should be retired.
"The decree will outline the retirement conditions and how to identify the plants that need to be retired. We are currently discussing this," she said.
The government plans to speed up the early retirement of the Cirebon-1 powerplant, following an agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM).
Originally set to close in July 2042, the 660-megawatt plant will shut down by December 2035. The agreement was signed by ADB, PLN, Cirebon Electric Power and the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) during COP28 in Dubai in December 2023.
As part of the shutdown plan, the construction of the Sumatra to Java electricity transmission network initially targeted for completion in 2028, will be accelerated to 2026.
"Originally, it was planned for 2028, but now it must happen in 2026, earlier than expected. So, the transmission from Sumatra to Java must be established and finished before 2028," Eniya said, as quoted by CNBC.
Eniya explained that the Sumatra-Java transmission network is necessary because renewable energy in Java –produced by geothermal and hydropower plants – cannot support the early retirement of the Cirebon-1 power plant.
