PLN Pockets 4 Strategic Cooperation To Accelerate Energy Transition

PT PLN (Persero) has an important agreement in accelerating Indonesia's energy transition at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Witnessed by the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia Sri Mulyani Indrawati, PLN signed an agreement with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Creditstalt f\"ur Wiereraufbau (KfW), PT Sarana Multi Infrastructure (PT SMI) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), Cirebon Electric Power (CEP), and Indonesia Investment Authority (INA).

Sri Mulyani appreciates the real support from the global side in realizing the energy transition in Indonesia and targets the agreement signed at the moment of COP28 in Dubai to be executed in the next two years.

"This is the first step that I hope can become a real thing in the next one or two years. Thank you for the support of all parties in their trust in working with Indonesia in mitigating the climate crisis," Sri Mulyani said in a statement to the media, Monday, November 4.

Sri Mulyani explained, in carrying out the energy transition, Indonesia needs at least 97 billion US dollars by 2030.

Indonesia already has Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM), which is a mixed financing mechanism that can be utilized by all global parties in solving the climate crisis.

"We need concrete steps through Green Low-Cost Financing. We provide a strong foundation for environmentally friendly financing countries through ETM and JETP that we have poured in the Comprehensive Investment & Policy Plan (CIPP)," said Sri Mulyani.

PLN President Director Darmawan Prasodjo explained that PLN in CIPP was involved in hundreds of energy transition projects.

In the current agreement in Dubai, PLN will accelerate the development of the Accelerated Renewable Energy Development (ARED).

Through ARED, PLN will be able to reduce emissions of up to 127 million tons of CO2 by 2030.

"We are mobilizing our best effort in carrying out this energy transition. We cannot run alone. We need global collaboration in terms of policy, technology, innovation and investment in saving the earth," said Darmawan.

Darmawan detailed that PLN is collaborating with NREL, which is the center for the development of EBT from the United States, which in this case also acts as the interim secretariat of Global Power System Transformation.

This collaboration will later contain a study on the development of the PLN control center. Recent technological innovations are needed to accelerate the development of EBT and so that EBT plants can operate efficiently and economically.

Specifically, both parties will review the integration of the Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Sumatra network systems. The three regions have great EBT potential so that an integration network system is needed so that all electricity supplies can be channeled to the entire community.

Second, PLN cooperates with GEAPP in developing potential projects in reducing carbon emissions significantly in the electricity sector.

Especially in replacing plants that have been based on fossil energy to domestic energy in accordance with regional potential.

PLN together with GEAPP will accelerate dedieselization, electric vehicle infrastructure and also the development of EBT in Indonesia.

Third, PLN also agreed to cooperate with PT SMI and KfW to utilize the Project Development Facility (PDF) managed by PT SMI for the Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Power Plant projects in order to accelerate the energy transition in Indonesia.

Later KfW together with PT SMI will provide support in the form of Feasibility Study and Environmental & Social Scoping in the preparation stages of the PLTA Grinduli Pumped Storage 4x250 MW project and PLTA Sumatra Pumped Storage 2x250 MW.

Finally, what is an important achievement in this agreement at COP28 is PLN together with CEP, ADB, and INA to accelerate the operational retirement of the Cirebon PLTU in December 2035, earlier than July 2042.

This effort was able to prevent emissions of up to 30 million tons of CO2.

"Under the direction of Mrs. Sri Mulyani, we can get green financing support for the country platform to expand our efforts in the energy transition. Under this funding scheme we are able to expand our EBT project up to 21.6 GW," concluded Darmawan.