- Indonesia’s state electricity company PLN is betting big on natural gas as a “bridging fuel” ahead of a big buildup of renewables.
- But it is at least half again more expensive than coal, and domestic supplies are running low.
- Critics say gas is costly, existing plants are underused, and the policy risks locking Indonesia into fossil fuels while diverting funds from clean energy.
- Domestic gas supply is also declining as wells age, raising fears of shortages by the mid-2030s unless new reserves are tapped.
In May, Indonesia’s state-owned electricity monopoly, PLN, vowed to increase its complement of natural gas power plants as part of a gambit, it said, to make its power supply cleaner and more reliable.
The plan was part of a 10-year supply blueprint that also expanded use of all other sources of energy that it had previously used, as well as some…
