PLN proposes coal DMO policy to include quality requirement

By Thomas Sembiring

State-owned electricity firm PT PLN has proposed to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to include coal quality and other specifications in the ministry?s future coal domestic market obligation (DMO) policy.

PLN?s Head of Coal Division, Harlen, told petromindo.com on Thursday that the company will submit to the ministry to coal specifications required by its power plants to help the government in designing coal DMO policy.

The DMO policy requires coal miners operating in the country to allocate part of its output to fulfill domestic demand. PLN is the single largest coal consumer in the country.

He said that requiring coal producers to ensure the supply of coal with the quality required by PLN is needed in anticipation of a turnaround in coal price that may tempt coal miners to prefer exporting their output, instead of selling them at home.

Harlen said that PLN?s power plants currently consume about 80 million tons of coal per year, which is projected to increase to 100 million tons in five years.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak