Makassar's waste to energy project waits on a single decision: where it goes

Everything ready except the address

On 27 August 2026 the South Sulawesi provincial government confirmed it is still waiting for the central government to designate the location for the waste to energy facility serving Makassar. Several plots of government owned land have been prepared and were among the options under central review, and the province stated it is ready to coordinate with the Makassar city government on whichever site is ultimately designated.

That is an unusual position for an infrastructure project. Land is normally the obstacle. Here the land exists, in public hands, with options identified. What is missing is the decision naming which one.

The final designation comes through a decree from the central government rather than from the province or the city. One option that has been raised publicly is a provincial asset in Gowa regency, which would place the facility outside Makassar city while serving it.

Mayor Munafri Arifuddin has confirmed the project continues, while stressing that the location and the whole process must follow the applicable regulations.

Why the project went back to tender

The pause has a specific cause, and it is regulatory rather than commercial.

In early August the central government and the provincial administration agreed to terminate the existing contract for the waste to energy project in the Mamminasata agglomeration, and to run a new tender under Danantara. The reason was a change in the governing framework, from Presidential Regulation 35/2018 to the newer waste to energy regulation issued in 2025. Reporting on the new regulation's number is not fully consistent, with one account citing Perpres 109/2020 where other coverage refers to Perpres 109/2025.

Governor Andi Sudirman Sulaiman described the requirement as a legal one rather than a matter of preference.

There is a mandate in the law. Contracts running under Perpres 35, then under Perpres 109, must be stopped first.

Environment Minister Moh Jumhur Hidayat indicated the re-tender need not take long, suggesting that once matters are settled and the location designated, a winner could be established within two to three weeks. The previous tender winner retains the opportunity to bid again, with whatever advantage its earlier track record confers.

This matters beyond Makassar. Perpres 109 replaced a framework that produced only two operating plants out of twelve planned, and projects in flight under the old regulation have to be brought across. A pause of this kind is the visible cost of that transition, and it is a cost other cities with legacy PSEL contracts should expect to encounter.

What a siting decision actually determines

It would be easy to read a location decision as an administrative formality. It is not. Siting determines most of the project's economics.

Distance from the waste sources sets the haulage cost, which is paid daily for the life of the plant and is carried by the local government rather than the operator. Proximity to a transmission connection determines the cost and timing of getting power to the grid under the power purchase agreement. Which jurisdiction hosts the site determines who receives host community benefits, who issues the permits, and who fields the complaints.

The Gowa option illustrates all three. A facility on provincial land in Gowa serving Makassar creates an intergovernmental arrangement rather than a municipal project. Makassar would be sending waste across a boundary, Gowa would be hosting infrastructure for a neighbour's waste, and the province would be the party holding the land. Each of those relationships needs terms, and those terms are easier to negotiate before a site is fixed than after.

So while waiting on a decree is frustrating, the period is not necessarily wasted if it is used to prepare the intergovernmental agreement that will be needed whichever option is chosen.

The national picture behind the wait

The environment ministry has noted that current PSEL schemes cover roughly 34 regional agglomeration areas, against 460 to 470 municipalities nationally, and has emphasised the need for flexible approaches across that range.

That proportion is worth sitting with. Waste to energy dominates national conversation about waste infrastructure, and it is planned for fewer than ten percent of Indonesian municipalities. It is a solution for large agglomerations with the volume to sustain a thermal plant and the institutional capacity to manage a long concession.

For the remaining majority, the relevant infrastructure is smaller: TPS 3R networks, RDF plants at the scale Madiun and Depok are pursuing, composting, and material recovery. A district that delays its own planning while waiting to see whether a PSEL arrives is likely waiting for something that was never intended for it.

Makassar, with around 1,000 tonnes a day projected for the facility, is firmly in the category where a PSEL makes sense. Most districts are not.

There is also a timing point other districts should note. Makassar stopped open dumping at TPA Tamangapa on 1 August 2026 and made household separation mandatory, while its largest downstream facility does not yet have a designated site. That sequence is common and not necessarily wrong, since an upstream restriction is what creates the demand justifying the downstream investment. But it means the sorting work, the TPS 3R network and the waste banks have to carry the load for years before the plant operates. Districts following the same path should budget for that upstream layer over the long term, rather than as a stopgap until a facility arrives.

Sirkularium's view for government and public institutions

Three observations.

First, on using a procurement pause productively. Makassar and South Sulawesi are waiting on a decree they do not control. The work that can proceed regardless includes the host community agreement, the haulage cost modelling for each candidate site, the grid connection assessment, and the intergovernmental terms if the site falls outside the city. We would encourage the parties to complete those before the designation rather than beginning them after it.

Second, on regulatory transitions as a project risk. Any local government with a waste to energy contract signed under an earlier framework should establish now, in writing, what the transition to the current regulation requires of it. Makassar's contract termination and re-tender is the orderly version of that process. Discovering the requirement late is the disorderly version.

Third, on right sizing the ambition. The 34 agglomerations figure deserves wider circulation among district governments. A district generating well under 1,000 tonnes a day should be planning around RDF, composting and material recovery rather than deferring decisions in the hope of a thermal plant. Provinces could help considerably by telling their districts plainly which category each falls into.

What to watch next: the decree designating the site and whether it selects the Gowa option or a location inside Makassar, the re-tender outcome and whether the previous winner returns, the intergovernmental terms if the facility sits outside the city, and whether the two to three week estimate for naming a winner survives contact with the designation timetable.

Makassar has the land, the volume and the mandate. It is waiting for a line on a map. Sirkularium will continue following the decision.