Govt to Close Captive PLTU, What’s the Impact?

The Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Ministry has opened a discourse on closing privately owned steam power plants (PLTU) to reduce pollution. The target is captive PLTUs or those owned by industrial players for internal needs, not PLTUs owned by independent power producers who are under contract with PT PLN (Persero).

In exchange, industrial players who own PLTUs will receive subsidies to buy electricity from PLN. “We are considering providing subsidies to purchase electricity from PLN, but everything is still in the review process and no final decision has been made yet,” Ministry’s spokesman Jodi Mahardi said, as quoted by Kontan on Thursday.

Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Johnny Darmawan hopes that the government and PLN will conduct an in-depth study of the impact of this policy on industrial players.

According to him, the government and PLN need to map how much industrial electricity is needed and the availability of PLN power plants. “It could be that there are certain areas that have a lot of industrial activity but have not been reached by PLN,” he said.