Indonesia lifts new, renewable energy generation target

Indonesia's energy and mineral resources ministry has raised the country's target to generate electricity from new and renewable energy (EBT) from 30pc to 48pc, which includes co-firing coal with biomass.

State-owned utility PLN's draft electricity generation plan for 2021-30 outlined the increase of EBT generation to 48pc or 19,899MW compared with a previous target for 2019-28 of 30pc. It also stated that the country plans to add 41GW of power generation capacity over the next 10 years.

Various options to achieve this target are being discussed, director-general of electricity Rida Mulyana said. This includes the conversion of diesel-fired power plants to EBT plants, co-firing coal with biomass at power plants, retirement of ageing power plants and relocation of others.

Some Indonesia-based suppliers saw higher domestic demand for palm kernel shell (PKS) biomass as some coal-fired power plants finished test co-firing with biomass last year. They also pointed out the price to sell PKS domestically could be higher because of the country's current record-high export tax and levy.

Indonesia's export tax and levy increased to $35/t for June as the June crude palm oil benchmark price rose above $1,200/t.

Indonesia is the biggest PKS exporter and the third-largest wood pellet exporter in Asia-Pacific after Vietnam and Malaysia. The country exported 3.17mn t of PKS and 311,000t of wood pellets in 2020.

By Sam Hong