PLN Electricity Still Generated by Coal

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned electricity company PLN is currently pushing to construct supporting infrastructures for electric vehicles (EV). However, the electricity production in Indonesia is still mostly generated by coal-fired power plants (PLTU), which continues to contribute to carbon emissions.

This was confirmed by PLN executive vice president of marketing and product development Hikmat Drajat. He said 60 percent of the company’s power plants are still composed of PLTUs and that producing electricity that eventually establishes the EV environment cannot be done in a short amount of time. 

"Electricity development cannot take one month or two months, [it needs] at least 2-3 years. The power plants that were built about 3 to 4 years ago were still predominantly PLTU, so that currently approximately 60 percent of the composition is still PLTU," said Hikmat at the IEMS 2021 exhibition on Thursday, November 25. 

However, he assures that the company is halting the use of coal-fired power plants and is starting to turn to renewable energy power plants through its geothermal power plants or PLTP.

"PLTP is renewable and has a potential of producing approximately 20 to 22 Giga Watt Hour. This is what we have not built together. There is already a policy from the government that there is no more coal-based power plant development," he added. 

Hikmat asked the public not to worry about carbon emissions resulting from PLN's electricity production. The state-owned company will also refer to the net zero emission plan which is targeted to be achieved by 2060.

Read: PLN Jakarta to Build 11 More EV Charging Stations

DICKY KURNIAWAN