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Indonesia ponders

CPP closures

INDONESIA BY replacing ageing coal power plants (CPPs) TransitionZero CEO Matt Gray announced
with renewable energy facilities, Indonesia could in a media release that “compared to fossil fuel
guarantee a wealth of new jobs at the same time subsidies and carbon capture projects, retiring
as slashing CO2 emissions, but at a cost. coal plants earlier than expected is not only eco-
In an analysis released by TransitionZero, the nomically beneficial but would also reduce air
closure by as early as 2040 of CPPs across South- pollution and put Indonesia on track to meet its
east Asia’s most heavily populated nation could net-zero ambitions.”
cost up to $37bn. A year ago, Indonesia’s state utility, Perusa-
Yet in a nation so often identified with large- haan Listrik Negara (PLN), did announce that
scale coal mining and known as the world’s big- all existing CPPs would be taken offline by 2055,
gest exporter of thermal coal, any moves towards with President Joko Widodo upping the ante
one day closing down coal exports entirely will earlier this year by adding that 5.5 GW of CPPs
carry significant knock-on effects for nearby would be closed down by the end of the decade.
India, China and Taiwan, who are all major At the time, the estimated cost to achieve this
importers of Indonesian coal. shutdown of 5.5 GW of generation capacity was
On the home front too, an estimated 70% $6bn.
of all Indonesian power is generated by coal Then just last month President Widodo took
burning. things a step further, in ordering his Ministry of
A predicted boost in jobs of around six cre- Energy and Mineral Resources to bring forward
ated for each one lost by closing CPPs, though, by five years the date for the nationwide closure
will be hard for the central government in Jakarta of all CPPs.
to ignore. So too will CO2 cuts of approximately The president’s order saw an almost immedi-
1.7 gigatonnes, according to the report. ate pushback on behalf of the Ministry of Energy,
At present, the Indonesian archipelago is with serving Minister Arifin Tasrif pointing out
home to 118 coal-powered facilities, and much the costs involved.
of the projected $37bn cost would come in “We also need additional funds to provide
the form of early buy-outs of existing facility training to mine workers so they could shift to
contracts. clean and renewable energy (jobs),” the minister
Equivalent to $1.2mn per MW to close down, said when speaking to a local news channel.
sources for the capital required for Jakarta to He added “We’re inviting investors, finan-
even consider wide-scale CPP closures at first cial institutions industries and policymakers to
appear few and far between. increase collaboration to support energy transi-
But with domestic coal subsidies last year tion to achieve net-zero emission in 2060.”
exceeding $10bn, the feasibility of ending Yet as if already accepting the long-term real-
domestic reliance on coal is being seen as a lot ity of CPP closures, the minister did disclose
more realistic than initial costs might indicate. plans to shut down three older plants in the cur-
And considering the central government’s rent year.
intended investments in carbon capture, utili- He did not, however, offer the names of the
sation and storage (CCUS) technology at cur- plants to be closed or exact locations, although
rent CCPs, which is forecast to reach $700bn if he did indicate they would be on the most heav-
implemented, the $37bn price tag seems cheap ily populated island of Java, where supply and
by comparison. capacity is more than adequately met be existing
Speaking of the options facing Indonesia, infrastructure.™

Week 43 25•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9