Government Cancels Early Retirement Of Cirebon-1 PLTU, Will Find Older Substitutes

PLTU Unit 1 Cirebon In Kanci Kulon Village, Astanajapura District, Cirebon, West Java. ANTARA/HO-Cirebon Power

JAKARTA - The government has decided to cancel the Cirebon-1 Steam Power Plant (PLTU) early retirement plan and in exchange, another PLTU that deserves to be retired more quickly.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto explained that one of the reasons for the cancellation was technical considerations because the Cirebon-1 PLTU was considered to still have a long operating age and used quite advanced supercritical technology.

"So one of them is technical considerations, because Cirebon is one of the ones with a long life, and the technology is also supercritical and relatively better," he said during a press conference, Friday, December 5.

He added that the government is preparing a replacement PLTU candidate who is older and has a higher emission rate.

However, Airlangga has not been able to detail the list of PLTU being considered.

When asked in more detail about the list of potentially retired PLTUs, Airlangga said that a study was being carried out by PT PLN (Persero) and only confirmed that the location of the plant was still on the island of Java.

"Later on, there will be older PLTUs, because there are many old PLTUs, (locations) in Java as well. There is a pipeline, PLN is still listing. Later ask PLN," he explained.

Airlangga also ensured that the funding previously prepared by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) scheme would not be problematic even though Cirebon-1 canceled early retirement. "Later on, there will be no problems," he said.

Meanwhile, the Director General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE), Eniya Listiani Dewi, said that the PLTU early retirement study refers to the Ministerial Regulation (Permen) of Energy and Mineral Resources in 2025.

"So the supporting data from the Permen has been identified. If I'm not mistaken, the existing 175 PLTUs will be given an analysis of which will have the worst impact on emissions, from the problem of the effects of the workforce," he said.

However, he was reluctant to mention which PLTUs are now included in the pipeline.

"We have criteria to do early retention of PLTU. Well, if we're actually discussing it. Cirebon or something else, that's on the list. There's still something even worse. We'll look for it later," he concluded.