Five coal miners protest Jero?s letter
Tuesday, August 26 2014 - 04:26 AM WIB
The paper said that the five coal mining firms include PT Pendopo Energi Batubara, PT Adi Coal Resources, PT Adimas Puspita Sari, PT Baramulti Sugih Sentosa Indonesia, and PT Hanson Energi.
Pendopo Energi General Manager for Business Development, Bambang Triharyono said that the five firms will hold a gathering with the Indonesian Coal Mining Association to discuss various issues relating to the development of the South Sumatra 9 and 10 power plant projects, and why the 3,000 kcal/kg coal should be utilized in the projects.
As reported by this portal earlier, Minister Jero in an August 21 letter of President Director of PLN Nur Pamudji has asked the company to cancel a recent company policy, which will require the winning bidders of the South Sumatra 9 and South Sumatra 10 coal-fired power plant projects to use low rank coal with calorific value (CV) of 3,000 kcal/kg.
Jero said that the CV of coal to be used in the projects must not be limited to 3,000 kcal per kg, and that PLN must observe the most efficient procurement process in developing the projects.
Several coal miners have previously protested PLN?s plan to require the winning bidders of the 2x600 MW S. Sumatra 9 and 1x600 MW S. Sumatra 10 mine-mouth power plant projects to use the 3,000 kcal/kg coal, arguing that such limitation would only favor certain miners and that forcing coal miners to utilize the low rank coal with such low CV would inflate production cost of the electricity.
PLN, however, has argued that although the use of coal with CV of 3,000 kcal/kg would increase cost, it would provide greater benefit for the government including in terms of extra royalty from the optimization of the huge low rank coal reserves in South Sumatra. (*)