Coal shortage still haunts Suralaya despite supply commitments

Despite having secured coal supply committment from Kalimantan coal producers to ease the supply shortage problem plaguing Suralaya power plant, PT Indonesia Power said that the supply problem may still linger due to transportation difficulties.

President of Indonesia Power (the operator of the Suralaya plant) Firdaus Akmal said that the recent heavy rain in Kalimantan and vessel shortage would slow down the delivery of the coal supply.

?More over, there will be long queue at Indonesia Power?s unloading facility as it had limited unloading capacity,? said Firdaus.

He, therefore, predicted that until April this year, coal stock at Suralaya would remain at critical level of one-week consumption, or around 250,000 tons, far below normal stock of around 750,000 tons.

Suralaya is in serious coal-supply problem as PTBA was forced to cut supply to Suralaya due to transportation problem.

The 3,400-MW Suralaya power plant is main supplier of Java electricity grid.(*)