Public protests over high air pollution in Jakarta due to emissions from transportation, coal-fired power plants and other sectors (Photo: PSHK)
By IGG Maha Adi – Bertha Challenge Fellow 2024
To avoid drawing public attention to the impact of power plant emissions, coal business and its supporters in Indonesia spread climate disinformation. On the other hand, the popularity of rooftop solar panels among the public is hampered because it reduces their income from dirty energy.
Climate disinformation is blatant in Indonesia as shown here. Parties are trying hard to mislead the public about the corrupt coal business and its impact on the climate. The ambition of transitioning to renewable energy looks bleak and hopeless.
- Investigation by Green Press and Beritalingkungan.com into the energy transition has focused on the early retirement plan of all coal power plants (PLTU). The launching of the energy transition roadmap was held back, to the detriment of their business.
- The Ministry of Environment and Forestry disseminated the disinformation on the impact of operation of coal-fired power plants in Jakarta’s pollution.
Ridwan, 45, still remembers the times he had to carry passengers on his motorbike, cutting through Sudirman Street in the center of Jakarta in June 2023. As an motorbike taxi looking for passengers around the most congested areas in the capital, he crossed the roads every day from morning to evening, even night. There are about one million online motorcycle taxi drivers like Ridwan in Jakarta, not counting the thousands of street vendors who directly inhale the polluted air on daily basis.
At that time, the sky in Jakarta had been foggy for weeks, often his view was obstructed so that Mujiono had to turn on the lights in broad daylight. “I’ve use my face mask and glasses,” he said. “It turns out that the smoke is pollution, and the news said it was from a power plant in Banten that was blown by the wind,” he said. He admitted that he often coughed along with the arrival of the haze even though he was wearing a mask.
According to an international agreement, the Air Pollutant Standard Index with a value of 101-199 indicates the poor quality of air in general, which can cause health problems in sensitive individuals. Data presented by IQAIR for August 9 and 23, 2023 shows Jakarta in the first position among the world’s most polluted cities with air quality measured at 161 AQI US. On August 31, 2023, it again came up as a first positioned large city carrying the world’s most air-polluted place with the air quality index of 175.
During August 2023, the capital city had indeed become the most polluted city in the world several times. This is the first time Jakarta has been ranked as the most polluted city in the world, beating several other cities that usually top the list, such as Dhaka, Lahore, or Delhi.
Air quality monitoring data in Jakarta and surrounding cities from 2021 to 2023 concluded that the PM (particulate matter) 2.5 level in the area was quite high and fluctuating. In July 2023, the average PM 2.5 in Jabodetabek was above 50 micrograms per cubic meter. “We have never met the WHO standard,” the minister of health said. He also said that Indonesia is still using the old WHO rules, namely for a 24-hour average of 55 micrograms per cubic meter, and an annual average of 15 micrograms per cubic meter.
As a result, the trend of air pollution in Jabodetabek has increased in the past 2 years. In addition, throughout 2022, the trend of Upper Respiratory Tract Infection cases in Jabodetabek was at 50-100 thousand. However, only in the first six months of 2023 did the cases start to spike and reach 150-200 thousand.
A 24/7 Emission
After asking many parties, we finally got emission modeling data from dozens of power plants around Jakarta, including Suralaya, from CREA (Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air). This is a non-profit organization based in Helsinki and it has data modeling using a wind direction database for different months.
They developed 3-dimensional meteorological data for every hour of the modeling year 2014 including wind speeds, directions, humidity, temperature, atmospheric stability and other relevant variables using the TAPM meteorological model developed by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO. The figure shows examples of the worst-case pollution dispersion in Jakarta, when air masses arrived in the city from the Suralaya industrial zone where five large CFPPs are located.
The conclusion is that the direction of the wind can be from the north or northwest towards the southeast, namely the direction of Jakarta City, and if supported by the difference in air pressure, emissions will fall above the sky of the capital. When the air in Jakarta is hotter than its surroundings, then the heat will trap the emission. If there is no strong wind, the emissions could last all afternoon or evening. “We are not concluding that the power plants are the sole contributor of the Jakarta urban pollution. But it is explicit from the modeling that the power plants’ emissions reach to the City of Jakarta”, said Katherine Hasan who is an Analyst with CREA to the media. Such modelling could indicate what amount or proportion the PLTU-emission contributes to the Jakarta-pollution.
Computer modelling of NO2, SO2 and PM2.5 concentrations over Jakarta on the “worst days” of pollution (source: CREA)
According to our research, there are 10 coal-fired power plants works for 24-hour close to Jakarta, and another six power plants that its emissions could reach Jakarta at the same period of heavy pollutions pouring the city.
The Dispute
The government dispute all of CREA’s conclusions. Director General of Pollution and Environmental Damage Control of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), Sigit Reliantoro, claimed that the wind was blowing towards the Sunda Strait in the west. In the satellite image that he showed, emissions around the Suralaya PLTU, two hours drive west of the capital, did not show any distribution to Jakarta. “We also conducted a study for the PLTU, also to answer whether the PLTU enters Jakarta or not. It has been confirmed that most of it enters the Sunda Strait,” said Sigit in a media briefing in the KLHK arboretum area on August 13
He also stated the poor air quality in Jakarta is more because of local factors. One of them is the massive use of private transportation such as motorbikes. He mentioned the largest contributor of emissions, about 44 percent, is taken from transportation. The industrial sector contribution is 25.17 percent, manufacturing 10 percent, housing 14 percent and commercial one percent. He did not mention the emissions from power plants that many people are talking about. Meanwhile, he explained, based on 2018-2022 data, the total number of registered motor vehicles in DKI is 24.5 million. As many as 78 percent are motorcycles with the growth from 2018 to 2022 was 5.7 percent. “So actually, it corroborates the fact that this is local in nature. None of it actually is coming from the Suralaya PLTU to Jakarta,” he said.
Exposure of Jakarta city air pollution by Director General of the Minister of Environment and Forestry, August 13, 2023. In his slides in this photo, he emphasized the phenomenon of local pollutants, not coal-fired power plant operations, as the main source of pollution in the capital city (Photo: Green Press Indonesia)
The statement from Sigit is in contrast to the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) a year before. They have issued a warning about the dangers of emissions caused by around 16 power plants around the capital city of Jakarta that operate 24 hours non-stop. This institution also assessed that PLTUs close to the capital city, including one in Cirebon, West Java, will definitely reduce the air quality in the capital to be bad.
Jakarta Public Lawyer Jeany Sirai told beritalingkungan.com that the government should create stricter environmental control policies. “One solution is not to add PLTUs, especially in the areas of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi that are close to the capital city. Why are investors targeting this area even though the electricity capacity is more than sufficient,” she said.
The information we have collected shows that in the Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL), there are approximately 39 new Coal-Fired PLTUs to be built with a capacity of 13.8 gigawatts or 43 percent. Not only pollution, the addition of PLTU is also predicted to produce 83 million tons of carbon emissions per year during 2021-2030 which will have an impact on increasing the earth’s temperature or global warming.
There are also academics who support the opinion of KLHK official, among others is Professor Puji Lestari from Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). According to Puji, in fact, when the pollution hits Jakarta in August, the wind blows to the Sunda Strait or to the west. “Transboundary pollution is highly influenced by meteorological factors, especially wind directions, and currently the direction is to the west and southwest or towards the Sunda Strait, not to Jakarta,” she said, “Like what happened in Jakarta, it comes from transportation, not PLTU.” She admitted that there was a contribution of PLTU emissions to Jakarta’s pollution, but only 10%, and only during the rainy season and not in the dry season like August 2023 when the pollution is very high.
The President’s Anger
Two weeks after the press briefing, Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya was summoned for a meeting with President Joko Widodo in Presidential Palace. By then, already, there was a lot of news going on that the President had coughs from poor air quality and even a video of the Minister of Finance emerged as she hoarse during a hearing with the parliament. “Yes, I am also suffering from an upper respiratory infection due to poor air quality,” she implied as appeeared on Youtube.
After the President meeting, the Minister Siti Nurbaya gave a surprising press statement as she said that emissions from power plant was one of the main sources of air pollution in Jakarta. Minister said that air pollution in Jakarta and its surroundings came from motor vehicles, which had a contribution of 44 percent, then power plants with 34 percent, and the remaining percent came from others, including household sources. The Ministry admitted to having examined 161 companies suspected of contributing to Jakarta’s high pollution levels. They also suspended the operation of several metal processing companies, waste incinerators, and coal stockfiles companies that will supply power plants in North Jakarta. That day the Minister of KLHK denied his subordinate’s statement.
The three types of businesses have existed in Jakarta since long and are operating almost every day without causing high pollution. The inspection by the ministry raises questions. The coal stockpile in North Jakarta only stores and transports without burning coal at all, so it doesn’t cause pollution. “We must check the fly ash in this stockpile which is also dangerous for health because it is a source of pollutants,” said one of the KLHK law enforcement staff during the field inspection.
Press statement by Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya on August 28, 2023. She confirmed that coal-fired power plants contributed 34% to Jakarta’s pollution while refuting her subordinate’s statement two weeks earlier (Photo:Green Press Indonesia).
We got information from one who knew the the meeting. President Joko Widodo look annoyed with Minister Siti Nurbaya for not delivering prompt and complete information on the source of pollutants in the city of Jakarta. This brought The President ordered her to open up all pollution data to the public. “When summoned to a meeting with the President, the Minister had actually brought data on power plant emissions to Jakarta’s pollution. So, when the President ordered it to be revealed, she could not resist and that immediately refuted his subordinate’s statement two weeks earlier,” said our internal source.
Directly after the minister’s official statement, all of his subordinates immediately support his boss. One of them was the Director General of Environmental and Forestry Law Enforcement Rasio Ridho Sani called PLTU as the main polluter of Jakarta’s sky. “The first source of pollutants is from the transportation sector and the second is from power plant emissions,” Ridho told journalists.
Our written questions to the Minister regarding the contradictory statements between him and her subordinate, a director general, did not receive a response. We also asked for the source of the data that was the basis for the minister’s statement, but also did not receive an answer. So whether it is Minister Siti or DG Sigit they are involved in blatant climate and science disinformation.
In the same letter, we also asked for daily monitoring data on emissions from the Suralaya coal-fired power plant, one of the largest emitters in Indonesia, but the ministry ignored our letter. This monitoring data is copied daily by staff at Suralaya and reported to PT PLN as the owner and to the Ministry of Forestry and Environment. We’ve sent a letter to the communication division of PLN, and directly to the president director via his personal LinkedIn account. We request an explanation and access to daily emission data from several PLTUs around Jakarta during the period when the capital was wrapped in pollution. No reply was received.
Concerning the coal production, we got an explanation from a former member of the National Energy Council, Satya Widya Yudha, now commissioner of a state-owned enterprise. Satya asserted that there were still partial differences of opinion between PLN and the JETP Secretariat in terms of the interest rate on the loan to be given and how many and where the PLTUs should be retired. “The United States as the main supporter of the energy transition through JETP has not yet provided proof of its funding commitment so that PLN cannot provide details to stop the operation of the PLTUs they manage,” he said.
In line with Satya is the Executive Director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) Faby Tumiwa. “PLN is in charge of supplying electricity for the entire nation, and this mandate is not easy to be done without clear investment in transitioning to renewable energy and retiring PTLU early,” he told us.
Impunity
When explaining about the sources of Jakarta’s pollutants last year, the Minister of KLHK emphasized that she would sanction the companies proven to have polluted Jakarta’s air. It means that there will be three groups of pollutant sources to be sanctioned according to the Minister’s statement, namely transportation companies, PLTUs and other types of companies.
In the case of a power plants, the owner must be subject to sanctions. Until this article was written, only two companies have been temporarily closed, namely the coal stockpile company in Bekasi and the waste collector in Tangerang. Meanwhile, for PLTUs, instead of being subject to sanctions, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry gave 28 awards in 2023 to PLN, including environmental performance awards. In 2024, the company received an award from ProKlima as a token of climate concern. While the Lestari Award was bestowed for Investing in Climate Editor’s Choice Award 2024 and to the President Director of PLN for Inspirational Figures In Environmental and Social Sustainability.
The Minister of Forestry and Environment (left) presents an award to PT PLN and actually received dozens of awards including in the fields of environmental performance, climate, and sustainability. On the other side, the company that owns the majority of PLTUs around Jakarta and has caused the Indonesian capital to become the most polluted city in the world in 2023, has (Photo: IST).
Fight Heat with Heat
Aris, a 29-year-old parking attendant at a culinary spot on the edge of Lake Cirata, 120 km southeast Jakarta, says the air has gotten hotter since the installation of floating solar panels was installed on the lake in front of his village. The Cirata PLTS Project is a National Strategic Project from the collaboration of two countries, namely Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, involving subholding PLN Nusantara Power with Masdar with an investment value of US$18.8 billion. After three years of work, Indonesian President Joko Widodo finally inaugurated the 192 MWp Cirata Floating PLTS on September 9, 2023; it is the largest floating PLTS in Southeast Asia and ranks third in the world. The floating project can reduce carbon emissions by 586.3 tons per day or 214,000 tons of emissions each year, according to a claim by PLN.
“Now the heat feels longer than before the project. It used to be dry in the dry season but now it feels hot during the rainy season,” Aris told beritalingkaran.com. Aris, a parking attendant and a local resident of Ciroyom village on the edge of the Cirata reservoir is not alone. Two food stall owners also admit feeling the heat. “The wind is still quite strong here, but the gusts of wind also feel hot,” they said. Aris’ concerns about the increasingly hot weather were actually conveyed by village officials around Cirata, namely Cipeundeuy Sub-district Head Heri Kemaluan in 2021 when the project was just about to start. According to Heri, the giant project could cause the air to get hotter because the panels reflect heat.
Another study, published in Nature Scientific Report on the edition of 13 October 2016, stated that large-scale solar power plants raise local temperatures, creating a ‘solar heat island’ effect, much smaller but similar to that created by urban or industrial areas, according to a new study. Even though this study has been conducted on desert conditions in the US, it should be ensured that the community’s perceptions are clarified to them in person concerning the Cirata project.
The negative environmental impacts of large floating photovoltaic solar power plants arise from the disruption of the underwater ecosystem, their shade blocks sunlight, changes in temperature and oxygen levels in the water, which ultimately affect aquatic flora. Apart from that, possible leakage of injurious chemicals from materials of platform into water due to its poor design or inadequate care may occur. The process of its construction and maintenance causes more disturbances of the water body and all its inhabitants.
Unfortunately, Heri’s and Aris’ voices were not heard nor responded by PLN, and the electricity company only delivered the goodness of the project to reduce the plus impacts of climate change, especially global warming. Trying to contact PLN again about whether the complaint of the community due to hot air was reasonable or for other reasons also did not get a response. That is like fighting global warming but getting hotter air instead.
Youtuber Jro Panggung or “Ajik Online” from Tabanan, Bali with a background of 5000 Watt solar roof at his house. PT PLN cut off his electricity supply completely since 2021 because he did not want to pay a fine of more than US$1,000 for refusing to increase his electricity capacity to 7700 Watts as a condition for obtaining a permit to use hybrid electricity. (Photo: IGGM Adi/Green Press Indonesia).
“They Hate Our Solar”
That’s such a beautiful house, located in the environment of Tabanan, Bali, which is kept clean. The owner is Jro Panggung, or more commonly known in the circles as Ajik Online. He also has a story of how PT PLN, the electricity company with a monopoly on the sale of electricity throughout Indonesia, has been making it difficult for people to turn to environmentally friendly energy sources and enjoy cleaner air – a 180-degree turn from the hype about how the state-owned company was committed to supporting national emission reductions with new and renewable energy.
Starting from watching solar panels on television, Ajik tried to install solar panels on the roof of his house with a power of 300 Watts, which then continued to increase due to his household needs. The panels caused the use of electricity from PLN to continue to decrease so that his bill payments were getting smaller.
“It turns out it’s nice if we don’t have to pay for electricity anymore, so I continue to increase the power of the solar panels to 1640 Watts in 2021 and to 5000 Watts in 2022,” he said. In early 2021 he chose on-grid, namely connecting electricity from his solar panels to PLN electricity. He said his acts were wrong, knowing that such practices should not have been carried out without prior permission from PLN, but there was a reason, as PLN asked him to increase the power to 7700 Watts, which he could not meet. It was reported that PLN had learned about the solar panels at Ajik’s house through a YouTube video. “With that much power, I will pay more subscriptions fee even though the electricity is not used. “This is contrary to our desire to get free electricity from solar power,” he told beritalingkungan.com when met at his house.
PLN, the electricity company, imposed a fine of Rp18 million (around $1200) on Ajik, whereas at that time he wasn’t working full time. After four times negotiations about the too-large size of the fine, no agreement was reached: “Finally I chose to go off-grid and disconnect from the PLN electricity network,” he said. Ajik never had to pay for electricity since that day and never was such a day when the solar panels disappointed him. “If we know how to install, choose the right equipment and maintain it, these solar panels can last up to 50 years,” he said. He and his three family members have received uninterrupted electricity every day since 2010, while all of his neighbors have experienced several blackouts in one year. “I feel like PLN hate that these solar panels are getting more popular,” he said.
Why does PLN not simply let many homes install solar panels that can help speed up the achievement of both emission reduction and offset targets? “PLN’s business will be disrupted because they definitely will lose if many people install solar panels at home,” said Ajik. So, while the state electricity company claims to be supportive and strongly committed to helping achieve Indonesia’s NZE target by 2060, reality is far from the mark.
According to Ajik, Regulation of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources No. 2 of 2024 concerning Rooftop Solar Power Plants is still detrimental for people who want to enjoy free electricity, even though it has been changed many times. For example, PLN no longer limits the amount of power coming from rooftop solar panels, but gives a quota. “If we apply for a permit to PLN, we will be given a quota of, for example, 10% of the PLN electricity installed in our homes. A 10% quota is very small power that can be produced in many cases in society,” he said.
Another way to suppress the growth rate of solar panels in society is, for example, by requiring Exim kWh to be used, but in a very difficult way to obtain. The Exim (Export-Import) kwh is a tool, a measuring device, which shows how much electrical flow goes into and out of the rooftop Solar Panel system to the PLN distribution network. The meter allows homeowners to sell excess PLTS-generated electricity to PLN. “In reality, the request for Exim kwh from one year ago may not necessarily be given today,” he said. As a result, people feel frustrated when they want to install solar panels and then return to PLN electricity, which mostly uses coal which is widely known as the dirtiest and the biggest destroyer of our climate.
IGG Maha Adi
