appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Resty Woro Yuniar

A wave of power outages across Indonesia’s Java island has left millions of residents and business owners in the dark, igniting public fury and raising questions as to how the world’s largest coal exporter is failing to keep its own lights on.
The answer, analysts say, lies less in a coal shortage than in the rules and incentives governing who gets to buy it, at what price and when.
Hours-long blackouts since last week have disrupted the lives and businesses of millions of subscribers of Indonesia’s state-owned utility firm PLN in Java, the centre of the US$1.5 trillion economy.
PLN attributed these outages to technical problems at two large power plants on the island operated by independent producers.
“[The two plants] were forced [offline] to disconnect from the Java electricity system,” PLN President Director Darmawan Prasodjo told reporters on June 19. He said PLN was facing a coal supply gap, especially for the medium-ranked coal used by its power plants.
According to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, coal accounted for 64.87 per cent of Indonesia’s total electricity generation as of April.

Social media has been flooded with complaints about the outages, including from Dena Putri Siswati, whose house in West Java’s Bogor suffered a three-hour blackout from 4pm to 7pm local time on June 18. During the outage, she missed a message from a recruiter about a potential interview for an administrative position at a mining company.
“Apparently the recruiter wanted to have a quick call with me around 5.30pm, but I only got his message at 5.46pm, as my Wi-fi was down and my mobile phone had no signal because of the power outage,” Dena told This Week in Asia.
After the power returned, the 24-year-old contacted the recruiter about another interview opportunity, but “he has not responded to this day”.
“I’m just annoyed. Why did PLN not tell us about the power outage? It was a pretty good company that I’d been [waiting] to hear from for the past two weeks. I was hoping that I could get the job,” said Dena, who had been job-hunting for two months.
Marjiin, owner of a small garment business in the East Javanese town of Pasuruan, told Kompas on Sunday that “daily outages” forced him to use a backup generator, which drove up his operational costs.
On Monday, PLN said one plant was back online, so that “rolling blackouts can be reduced significantly”.
In a statement on Monday, Darmawan said coal supplies that met the plant requirements “began flowing last week, strengthening the resilience of the electricity system on Java island”.
Indonesia exported 390.93 million tonnes of thermal coal last year, worth US$24.48 billion, down from 405.76 million tonnes in 2024, according to statistics agency BPS.
The country accounted for half of the world’s thermal coal shipments, with China, India, and the Philippines being its top buyers last year, said trade data tracker and analytics firm Kpler.

Coal crunch
The electricity crisis in Java comes on the heels of a massive, three-day blackout that crippled Sumatra last month, triggering concerns about the reliability of the country’s power sector.
Bahlil Lahadalia, minister of energy and mineral resources, said on June 15 that PLN was short of 20 million tonnes of coal earmarked for electricity generation this year, having secured only 134 million tonnes out of the required 154 million tonnes.
Fabby Tumiwa, chief executive of the Institute for Essential Services Reform, said “probably more than half of coal-fired power plants in the Java-Bali network have [coal reserves] to cover less than 10 days of operation”.
According to Fabby, the root of the problem is the Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) policy, which caps the coal price PLN pays domestic producers at US$70 per tonne – far below the international market price of above US$120 per tonne, as of Tuesday.
Under DMO, Indonesian coal producers must sell a quarter of their total output to meet domestic needs, such as supplying electricity plants, nickel smelters, or cement production.
Fabby said many producers preferred to export their coal for profit, since they “only have to pay a fine” if they did not supply domestically.


Ahmad Zuhdi Dwi Kusuma, associate principal at the Energy Shift Institute, points to a regulatory ambiguity that allows domestic industry to buy coal at above US$70 per tonne.
“Companies can sell 25 per cent of their coal output to nickel smelters, who can buy above US$70 per tonne, and it would be counted towards meeting their DMO quotas. On paper, the miners have no problem,” Ahmad said.
The government’s move to cut miners’ annual production (RKAB) to 600 million tonnes for this year, down from 790 million tonnes last year, also led to coal scarcity, he added.
Delayed approvals also played a role, Ahmad said, noting that as of March, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources had approved RKAB proposals for only 300 million tonnes of coal.
“Without approval, miners cannot mine. Delayed approval causes ripple effects such as delayed contracts and [equipment] leasing. This is one of the fundamental governance errors causing our current coal shortage,” Ahmad said.
President Prabowo Subianto’s decision to streamline exports of top commodities, including coal, under the supervision of state-owned Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia also made “miners wait and hold operations” for clearer government direction, Ahmad said.
Singgih Widagdo, chairman of the Indonesian Mining and Energy Forum, suggested raising the DMO to “above US$80 per tonne” to help PLN compete for coal and prevent the depletion of reserves for power plants.


Southeast Asia supports multilateralism, wary of US or China leadership: survey

Named as an enemy: Indonesia’s uneasy Aukus moment

Malaysia deploys air force aircraft for cloud seeding to combat worsening haze

Why the Global South keeps its doors wide open to Russia

Indonesia

How Indonesia’s coal policies left its own citizens in the dark

Barges are loaded with coal on the Mahakam River in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, in 2022. Photo: AP

People walk along a pavement in the city’s main business district, in Jakarta. A series of power outages across Indonesia’s Java island has ignited public fury. Photo: EPA

A fisherman looks at the Suralaya coal-fired power plant in Cilegon in 2023. Indonesia exported 390.93 million tonnes of thermal coal last year, worth US$24.48 billion. Photo: AFP

Indonesia hails China’s backing for panda bond amid investor concerns over rules

A container terminal at the Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta. Photo: AFP

Indonesian Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa attends a media briefing on the state budget at the finance ministry in Jakarta on June 5. Photo: AFP

Indonesia plans to issue its debut yuan-denominated sovereign bond next month. Photo: Johannes Neudecker/dpa

A nickel processing plant operated by Vale Indonesia in Sorowako, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: EPA

Plastic chokes Indonesian islands as policies, enforcement slip through ghost nets

An installation depicting an anglerfish made from plastic waste is displayed during a rally in Jakarta in 2019. Photo: AFP

Divers retrieve an abandoned fishing net in Bawah Reserve, Indonesia’s Anambas Islands. Photo: Carolyn Beasley

A community waste sorting facility in Indonesia’s Anambas Islands. Photo: Bawah Anambas Foundation

Volunteers collect plastic waste on a beach in Mabini, the Philippines. Photo: Reuters

Indonesia’s rupiah rebounds but rate rises threaten middle class

An Indonesian rupiah banknote pictured next to a US dollar banknote at a currency exchange office in Jakarta. Photo: AFP

The Bank Indonesia logo is seen outside the central bank’s headquarters in Jakarta. Photo: Shutterstock

The logo of Danantara Indonesia, the country’s second sovereign wealth fund, is seen at its headquarters in Jakarta. Photo: AFP

University students protest in Jakarta on Monday against a rise in non-subsidised fuel prices and the Indonesian government’s free school meals programme. Photo: AFP

Why Indonesia cannot afford to scrap Prabowo’s free meals programme

Students eat lunch provided by the Free Nutritious Meals programme in Bandung, West Java, on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

University students stage a theatrical show during a protest against government policies, including the free meals programme, outside the West Java Regional Representative Council building in Bandung on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (right) greets Head of the National Nutrition Agency Nanik Sudaryati Deyang  during an inauguration ceremony in Jakarta on June 8. Photo: EPA

Teachers distribute free meals to students in a school in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on May 19. Photo: EPA

This Week in Asia

Economics

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

Hours-long blackouts since last week have disrupted the lives and businesses of millions of subscribers of state-owned utility firm PLN in Java


Hours-long blackouts since last week have disrupted the lives and businesses of millions of subscribers of state-owned utility firm PLN in Java.


How Indonesia’s coal policies left its own citizens in the dark

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hours-long blackouts since last week have disrupted the lives and businesses of millions of subscribers of state-owned utility firm PLN in Java

Hours-long blackouts since last week have disrupted the lives and businesses of millions of subscribers of state-owned utility firm PLN in Java