State-owned electricity provider PLN (Persero) reported a total carbon emissions reduction of 48.4 million tons throughout 2024. According to PLN President Director Darmawan Prasodjo, the progress was achieved through the use of renewable energy sources and advanced technology in coal-fired power plants. 

One of the largest contributions came from gas-powered plants, which helped reduce emissions by 12 million tons over the course of the year. Renewable energy facilities with a combined capacity of 1.3 gigawatts contributed to another 16.3 million tons of reductions. 

Darmawan said further improvements came from the use of ultra-supercritical technology in coal plants. This technology is more efficient than older systems and enabled PLN to cut an additional 13.9 million tons of carbon emissions. 

PLN also expanded the use of biomass to replace part of the coal used in power generation, a method known as co-firing. This initiative helped reduce emissions by 2 million tons in 2024. Meanwhile, general energy efficiency measures across the company added another 4.3 million tons to the total reduction. 

Gregorius Adi Trianto, PLN’s Executive Vice President for Corporate Communications and CSR, said co-firing is now in place at 44 power plant locations across Indonesia. Between January and May 2024, the program used 419 thousand tons of biomass and helped reduce emissions by 478 thousand tons. 

“This is part of PLN’s ongoing effort to support Indonesia’s energy transition and its target of reaching net zero emissions by 2060,” Gregorius said on Wednesday, June 26. 

PLN’s co-firing program involves partially substituting coal with biomass such as wood pellets, wood chips, palm kernel shells, municipal waste, and sawdust. The company sees this as a transitional solution to cut back on coal usage while renewable energy capacity continues to expand. 

This article is published in partnership with Katadata 
Original article here