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New ‘green’ RUPTL risks sidelining, rather than empowering renewables
Experts suggest the new power procurement plan leans toward repeating past mistakes and undermining energy transition commitments.
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High-wire act: A technician from state electricity company PLN stands atop a transmission tower during regular maintenance work on Dec. 27, 2023, in Palu, Central Sulawesi.
(Antara/Basri Marzuki)
T
he long-awaited 2025-2034 electricity business plan (RUPTL) could sideline renewable energy despite containing a huge amount of planned green power, as experts suggested the new power procurement plan was leaning toward repeating past mistakes and undermining energy transition commitments.
Dody Setiawan, senior analyst for climate and energy at think tank Ember, told The Jakarta Post on May 28 that the new RUPTL backloaded 72 percent of the planned 42.6 gigawatts (GW) of new and renewable energy projects to the second half of the ten-year procurement period.
Instead, the government and state-utility company PLN designed it to frontload 12.7 GW of coal and gas plants in the first half of the ten-year period, which is 76 percent of the planned fossil fuel powered generations in the RUPTL.
“We observed a strong energy security focus in the [new] RUPTL, with large capacity additions to support economic growth and rising demand from downstream industries. On the other hand, decarbonization efforts remain [a] secondary [priority],” Dody said.
He added that increased reliance on gas powered plants would also come with supply risks given the consistent decline in domestic natural gas production, which could translate into more costly power generation.
BMI Research, a unit of Fitch, dubbed the newly launched electricity business procurement plan a “step back” from Indonesia’s energy transition and climate commitment.
It pointed out that the 6.3 GW of new coal-fired capacity indicates a “persistent reliance on coal” as a baseload power source despite a 2040 coal phase-target announced by President Prabowo Subianto during the G20 Summit in Rio De Janeiro late last year.
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