Indonesian Power Employees Association (PP-IP) in Jakarta’s natural gas combined cycle plant.
Unions covering workers in Indonesia’s mostly state-owned coal-fired power sector are pushing for a just transition to renewable energy while retaining public ownership. Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA has joined the global union, Public Services International (PSI), to support their goal.
Workers’ voices are crucial as the G20 has promised US$20 billion to support Indonesia’s transition to renewable energy through Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). However, less than 1% of this is a grant, the rest being a loan and unions suspect it could prove a debt trap as well as a backdoor to privatisation.
The JETP includes a clause that money must also be allocated to transitioning workers in coal mines and coal-fired power plants to new jobs. But it is also calling for a “clear strategy for private sector engagement” through the removal of “regulatory barriers.”
The Indonesian Power Employees Association (PP-IP), covering power plant workers, is resisting privatisation to retain public ownership of power, as the state electricity company’s (PT PLN Indonesia Power) 7,035 mostly coal-fired power stations retire.
A Strategy Against Privatisation
Indonesia, like Australia, is one of the world’s top coal producers and exporters. Unlike Australia, more than 65% of its power plants and 100% of its electricity grid, transmission, and distribution are state-owned.
The unions want state ownership of all power plants and the grid, as enshrined in the Indonesian Constitution.
Created at the time of Indonesia’s Declaration of Independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1945, Article 33 passionately declares that the “land, waters and the natural resources within shall be under the powers of the State and shall be used to the greatest benefit of the people.”
This is now a rallying cry of the unions, who see privatisation as just another form of colonialism and foreign control.
Global union network Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) is supporting Indonesian power unions in challenging new laws that would override the Constitution in court.
The World Bank has pledged $750 million toward shifting Indonesia from coal to renewable energy over the coming decades, and the
Asian Development Bank has made similar commitments. Both bank loans and much of Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) billions, however, also promote a shift of power to the private sector.
TEUD warns that climate finance instruments such as the ADB’s market-based Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) are neoliberal policies also aggressively pushed by the World Bank.
Loan disbursements are contingent upon “satisfactory performance,” including “private sector participation,” “unbundling” of electric public utility companies, and the expansion of private sector investments in renewable energy.
Around 35% of Indonesian power plants are already in private hands. TUED predicts that if the private push is successful, the state company would be reduced to being a buyer of electricity from private companies by 2030.
Andy Wijaya, PP-IP General Secretary, described JETP as a swap between state-owned fossil fuel plants and privately owned renewable energy plants. He fears it will increase the price of electricity, burden the community, and bankrupt the nation.
Andy Wijaya outside Jakarta’s natural gas combined cycle plant.
In his office, located near Jakarta’s state-owned gas-fired power plant, Wijaya frowned as he contemplated the transition.
“We must support renewable energy,” he said. “It is impossible for us not to. We need a healthier planet, we need to stop global warming, but we need justice with the energy transition.”
Wijaya is adamant that the privatisation of power is not in the public interest, nor is it in the interest of his 3,875 members.
“(Power) must be controlled by the people and by the state,” he said. “It is in our Constitution. We must not forget that the private sector does not care about the interests of people. They only care about their profits. If the price of electricity goes up, pity the citizens of Indonesia.”
Wijaya said his union would support the transition to renewable energy if it is implemented according to the Constitution. That means no privatisation and no unbundling of the network. As well the price of electricity must be affordable for people and safe to both the environment and local communities.
Story and photos by Zoe Reynolds.
