Source: asia.nikkei.com
Indonesia has announced a new electricity procurement plan that includes up to 500 trillion rupiah ($35 billion) for development of renewable energy-based power plants in the coming decade as Southeast Asia's largest economy aims to cut its dependence on coal.
State utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara, which holds a monopoly over the country's power sector, on Tuesday called its latest procurement plan -- the RUPTL 2021-30 -- its "greenest" to date. Renewables will dominate construction of new power plants to be built nationwide through 2030 -- accounting for 51.6% of the total 40.6 gigawatts of planned additional capacity.
That marks a substantial increase from 29.6% in the previous 10-year plan released in 2019. PLN has usually updated the RUPTL annually, but last year was one of a few exceptions with the coronavirus pandemic disrupting economic growth forecasts and projections for electricity demand in the country.
"The lengthy process was also affected by global trends including stronger demand from countries and big or international consumers for green products, termination of financing for fossil fuel-based power plants by sponsor institutions or countries, as well as costs of renewables ... that continue to decline and are becoming more competitive," Rida Mulyana, director general for electricity at Indonesia's energy ministry, told a webinar describing the latest RUPTL.
Taking into account slowing growth in the aftermath of the pandemic and previous forecasts that were too ambitious, PLN's plans to build 40.6 GW-worth of new power plants over the next decade is lower than the previous 56.4 GW target for 2019-28. The company, fully owned by the government, now estimates 4.9% electricity demand growth annually, from 6.4% in the previous estimate.
A total of 20.9 GW of new power plants from renewable sources will be built through 2030, from the previously planned 16.7 GW through 2028. Hydropower still leads, accounting for around half of the total, but solar is seeing the highest increase -- more than tripling to 4.7 GW, followed by geothermal at 3.35 GW.
There will still be a total of 13.8 GW of additional capacity from new coal-fired power plants through 2027 from ongoing projects or existing contracts from the government's previous 35 GW power procurement program.
