Jakarta clears the land question for its Bantargebang waste-to-energy plant and targets construction before year end

Jakarta has moved its flagship waste-to-energy project a step closer to construction. On Wednesday 7 October 2026, Governor Pramono Anung Wibowo said the land provision issue that had held back the planned PSEL (pengolahan sampah menjadi energi listrik) facility at Bantargebang now has a solution. He expressed hope that the project will be included in the third batch of the national programme, allowing construction to begin before the end of the year.

For a city that has relied on a single landfill site for decades, this is a meaningful milestone. It also places Jakarta alongside a growing list of Indonesian cities moving from planning to delivery on waste-to-energy.

What the governor announced

Speaking to reporters, Pramono acknowledged that land had been the main constraint. He explained that new regulations had made land provision relatively difficult in Jakarta, but that a way forward had been found the previous day. ANTARA and detikNews both carried the statement.

Including the one at Bantargebang, it will be resolved soon, and hopefully it will be part of batch 3, so that it can be built before the end of this year, the governor said.

The land question has a history. When the Jakarta provincial government signed a memorandum of understanding with Danantara on 4 May 2026, Kompas reported that Jakarta's PSEL facilities would be built at two locations, TPST Bantargebang and Tanjung Kamal Muara in North Jakarta, and that the sites were not provincial assets. Dudi Gardesi Asikin, head of the Jakarta Environment Agency, said at the time that the province did not yet have available land but was committed to finding it. The governor's update suggests that this commitment has now been met for Bantargebang.

Pramono placed the plant within a broader system. He said the province wants to strengthen Jakarta's waste balance across all its channels, naming the waste-to-energy plants, the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) facilities at Rorotan and Bantargebang, and the network of TPS3R neighbourhood recycling sites. He linked this to Governor's Instruction Number 5 of 2026 on sorting and processing waste at source, saying he hoped it would continue to improve how waste is managed across the city.

The scale of the task at Bantargebang

Bantargebang, located in Bekasi City but operated by Jakarta, is one of the largest waste sites in Indonesia. In March 2026, coverage by Inilah reported that the site held around 55 million tonnes of accumulated waste. At that time the governor said land at Bantargebang had been prepared for a waste power plant, and that Jakarta would no longer rely solely on the landfill, following a presidential directive to spread processing across several sites.

There has been real progress upstream since then. Under the governor's instruction, Bantargebang moved to accepting residual waste, and household sorting gathered pace across the city. iNews and Liputan6 reported in late August and early September that daily arrivals at Bantargebang had fallen by around 500 tonnes. ANTARA reported in August that the sorting rate had risen to 23.14 percent of households, from 5.31 percent when the movement began.

That upstream progress matters for the plant. A waste-to-energy facility performs best when it receives a steady, predictable residual stream, with less wet organic material and fewer recyclables that have value elsewhere. Jakarta's sorting push helps shape exactly that feedstock.

A national programme gathering pace

Jakarta's update came one day after a strong national signal. On 6 October, at the opening of the Indonesia International Sustainability Forum 2026 in Jakarta, Minister of Investment and BKPM head Rosan Roeslani said he was confident there would be waste-to-energy groundbreakings in 12 more cities by the end of the year.

The programme already has momentum. Three Phase 1 facilities, Denpasar Raya, Bekasi and Bogor Raya, are National Strategic Projects. Construction of PSEL Bogor Raya 1 began on 17 September 2026, with a capacity of 1,500 tonnes per day, investment of Rp2.8 trillion and target operation in mid-2028. For Phase 2, eight partners have been selected for eight locations covering 20 regencies and cities, with feasibility studies targeted for mid-November and groundbreakings planned for December 2026 to January 2027.

Bantargebang's immediate neighbour shows what the next step looks like. The Bekasi City PSEL at Ciketing Udik, also within Bantargebang district, began construction on 26 August 2026. ANTARA reports that it is designed to process 1,500 tonnes per day, with investment of Rp3 trillion and operation targeted for mid-2028. Jakarta's facility would add a second plant in the same area, serving the capital's much larger waste stream.

What still needs to fall into place

With land addressed, several elements will determine how quickly Jakarta moves from announcement to groundbreaking.

The first is batch selection and the partner. Entering batch 3 depends on the national process run with Danantara, including selection of a technology and investment partner and agreement on the project structure. Jakarta has not yet published the capacity, technology or investment value of its Bantargebang plant, and these will become clearer through that process.

The second is the power purchase arrangement with PLN. Earlier PSEL projects have relied on a defined tariff and offtake agreement, which provides the revenue certainty investors need.

The third is feedstock planning. Jakarta's waste balance will now be divided among source reduction, TPS3R, RDF at Rorotan and Bantargebang, and the PSEL. Planning how much residual waste each channel takes, and how that changes as sorting rises, will help size the plant correctly and avoid either shortfalls or oversupply.

The fourth is the Tanjung Kamal Muara site. The second Jakarta PSEL location in North Jakarta remains part of the plan, and progress there would reduce the long-distance haul of waste from northern Jakarta to Bekasi.

Sirkularium's view

For government and public institutions, the Bantargebang announcement offers three practical lessons.

First, land is often the decisive constraint for waste infrastructure in dense metropolitan areas, more so than finance or technology. Jakarta's experience, from the May memorandum that acknowledged the province had no available land to the October update that a solution has been found, shows the value of settling site questions early and transparently. Other agglomerations entering Phase 2 can learn from this by securing land commitments before partner selection.

Second, the plant is one part of a waste balance, not a replacement for it. Pramono's emphasis on RDF, TPS3R and Governor's Instruction Number 5 alongside the PSEL is the right framing. Source sorting has already reduced arrivals at Bantargebang by around 500 tonnes a day. Continuing that trajectory keeps the residual stream suited to energy recovery and keeps recyclables and organics in higher value uses.

Third, legacy waste deserves its own plan. The 55 million tonnes already at Bantargebang will remain after the new plant is built. Landfill mining, RDF production from older cells, gas capture and progressive cover can work in parallel with the PSEL, gradually reducing the footprint and risks of the existing site.

What to watch next: confirmation that Bantargebang is included in batch 3, the announcement of the selected partner and plant capacity, the PLN power purchase arrangement, and progress on the Tanjung Kamal Muara site. If the timeline holds, Jakarta and Bekasi together will have two waste-to-energy plants under construction in Bantargebang district by the end of 2026, a significant shift for the area that has carried the capital's waste for decades.