Fabby Tumiwa, Executive Director of the Institute for Essential Services and Reform (IESR), a think-tank in the field of energy and the environment, said that there are two reasons why the government still relies on Coal Power Plant (PLTU). “The practical reason from PLN and the ESDM [Ministry] is that the cost of the PLTU is the cheapest compared to others. Second, the PLTU financing is mostly subsidized through public finance support. This makes coal investment low-cost because it uses public money, not the stock market, where interest rates are also low and the payback tenor is long,” he explained.

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