PLN sees coal consumption rises in 2009

State electricity firm PLN would add its coal consumption by 20-25 million tones per year starting 2009, when it completes development of 8,000 MW coal fired power plants across the archipelago, a company senior official Muljo Adji was quoted by Kompas as saying.

The government has stated it would issue regulation to speedily develop 8,000MW coal fired power plants worth US$9 billion across the archipelago to save fuel costs and to fulfill increasing electricity demands.

.Muljo also said that the government would also take steps to ensure that domestic power plants would have adequate coal supply by issuing regulations for coal miners to prioritize domestic coal consumption. (*)