Govt to create new domestic coal market‬

By Tri Subhki R‬

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said stated that the planned 35,000 MW power plant projects to be developed over the next five years will create a new domestic coal market. ‬

"Currently, we export 80 percent of (our) coal and domestic market only absorbs 90 million tons of the total production of 425 million tons," Sudirman commented at the 21st Annual CoalTrans Asia on Monday.‬

Sudirman said the development of the 35,000 MW of power generations, the bulk of which will be coal-fired, will absorb approximately 200 million tons by 2019. "It will create a new equilibrium as most of our coal will be domestically utilized," he said.‬

Chairman of Indonesia Coal Mining Association Pandu Sjahrir welcomes the government?s commitment to utilize coal for power generation.‬

Elsewhere, Sudirman also called on coal mining companies to go downstream by developing mine mouth power plants.‬

"The government simplifies the permits for Independent Power Producers (IPP) and PT PLN (state power utility) can directly choose its partners," he said.‬

Mine mouth power plant is the solution to economically utilize coal in the surrounding mines and provide sustainable coal supply for coal-fired power plants.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak