Domestic coal consumption to be lower than target

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said that domestic coal consumption this year is almost certain to be much lower than the 111 million tons target as set in the 2015-2019 National Medium Term Development Plan (or RPJMN), Bisnis Indonesia reported on Tuesday.

The paper quoted the ministry?s Coal Chief Agung Pribadi as saying that domestic coal consumption this year is expected to be only around 87 million tons as there is no new major coal-fired power plant completed this year.

Of the total domestic coal consumption of 87 million tons, about 72 million tons will be absorbed by coal-fired power plants in the country. Agung said that as per July of this year, coal consumption by coal-fired power plants operated by state-owned electricity firm PT PLN totaled only 40 million tons.

Under the 2015-2019 RPJMN, the government has set domestic coal consumption to keep on rising as new power plants are being developed. While domestic coal consumption last year was estimated at 102 million tons, or 24 percent of total production, consumption in 2019 is projected to reach 60 percent of total production.

The government has set a five-year program to develop a total of 35,000 MW power plants until 2019, of which about 20,000 MW will be coal-fired. Coal miners had expected domestic coal market to be a cushion against the lingering weak global coal market. (*)