Govt may allow PLN to directly appoint coal suppliers for its future power plants

Government may allow state electricity firm PLN to directly appoint coal suppliers for its future power plants in order to support program to build up to 8,000MW coal-fired power plants in the next two to three years, a senior official was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying Thursday.

Director General of electricity Yogo Pratomo, however, said that the decision to directly appoint coal suppliers would not be included in Governmental Regulation that was being drafted to allow PLN to directly appoint EPC contractors for the huge project. ?It would be done purely based on B-to-B deal. If PLN decides to directly appoint coal suppliers, it must be done purely on strong business justification,? he said.

Then government is embarking on ambitious plan to build 8,000 MW of coal-fired power plants across the archipelago to support the country?s economic growth and to cut fuel costs, as most of the power plants operating in Indonesia are still oil-fired.

PLN estimates that it will need additional supply of 25 million tones of coal per year if the plan materializes. (*)