Indonesia’s PLN in talks with investors over early retirement of coal plants

JAKARTA  – Indonesia’s state utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) is in negotiations with U.S. and European investors to help finance an acceleration scheme for its coal power plant retirement, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

PLN is targeting reaching net zero carbon emission by 2060 and planning the early retirement of coal plants worth a collective capacity of 10 gigawatts overall.

“We are in the process of negotiating with global communities, American counterparts, European counterparts, global investment (firms), about an energy transition mechanism,” Darmawan Prasodjo told a G20 side event in Indonesia’s Bali, which was streamed online.

He said 6.7 gigawatt of coal power capacity is earmarked for retirement earlier under the program.

As of 2020, PLN had 63.3 GW of installed power capacity with 50 percent coming from coal-fired plants.

Darmawan said some of PLN’s coal capacity would come to natural retirement in 2044, but the company can expedite the phasing out by a decade with affordable financing at a 2.5 percent to 3 percent rate.

Although PLN vowed it would not commission new coal power plants, Darmawan said that a number of coal projects currently under construction would still enter the system until 2026, worth 13 GW of output.