Only One of the Targeted 12 Waste Power Plant is Operational

JAKARTA – The government targets 12 Waste Power Plants (WPP) to be operational by 2022. In a release Wednesday (16/2), Assistant Deputy Energy for the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Ridha Yasser said that his ministry continues to oversee coordination with local governments and related ministries/agencies to accelerate the realisation of the 12 WPP infrastructure. He said, waste power plants are currently a priority solution to dispose of waste quickly on a large scale. However, this target is still far from realisation, since until now only Benowo WPP in Surabaya has been fully operational since 6 May 2021. The plant can process waste into electrical energy up to 1,000 tons and convert it into 10 MegaWatts (MW) of electricity. While a better constructed WPP in Surakarta has only reached 20% of progress of completion. The planned waste processing plant in Jakarta still has funding constraints due to the withdrawal of one of its investors. Other plants in Palembang and Tangerang municipalities are in their preparation stages. Yasser said that agreeing on the incentives is one of the obstacles that needs to be solved quickly. Distribution of these incentives is regulated in Presidential Regulation No. 35/2018 regarding the management of the development and investment of waste processing systems in cities that are included in the waste emergency category. Currently, the progress of the waste power plants development in 12 cities is also monitored by the Committee for the Acceleration of Priority Infrastructure Provision (KPPIP). KPPIP was established in 2015 with a mandate to accelerate the implementation of infrastructure projects in Indonesia and become a centre of excellence for accelerating infrastructure programs. KPPIP also said that a common issue faced by WPP is the tipping fee (waste processing service fee), which arises due to the large volume of waste to be processed in WPP. (Hartatik)