Oil crisis threat: Prabowo orders acceleration of renewable energy transition
Jakarta — President Prabowo Subianto has instructed his administration, particularly those assigned to the Energy Transition Task Force (Satgas EBTKE), to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, with a particular emphasis on solar power generation.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, who heads the Energy Transition Task Force, explained that the President issued the acceleration directive in response to the threat of an oil crisis currently occurring in the Middle East and Western Asia region.
“That is one of the matters we discussed during our meeting with the President — we must have alternatives in place for the situation in the Strait of Hormuz,” Lahadalia stated when addressing journalists following his audience with President Prabowo at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday, 12 March.
Lahadalia subsequently reported on the inaugural task force meeting, which was attended by eight ministers, senior officials from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, and executives from state-owned power company PT PLN.
He indicated that the task force can immediately execute its energy transition plans, including halting certain power plants still operating on fossil fuels, such as diesel power plants (PLTD) and coal power plants (PLTU) running on diesel fuel. Lahadalia stated the task force aims to commence operations following the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which falls next week.
“In the current geopolitical conflict situation, we cannot guarantee the security of our energy supply in the long term. Therefore, we must optimise all our domestic energy resources and convert them from fossil fuels as part of this transition,” Lahadalia said.
However, Lahadalia continued, the government will naturally await the completion of replacement power generation infrastructure based on renewable and new energy sources before shutting down fossil fuel-based power plants.
“We must build first. If we shut down power plants before their replacements are constructed, there will be no alternative supply. So we proceed in parallel — as soon as the new facilities are constructed and reach commercial operation date (COD), the diesel plants will be switched off,” Lahadalia explained.
COD, or commercial operation date, marks the conclusion of technical testing and the commencement of power generation operations to supply electricity to the PLN grid network.