Power projects need 30 million tons of coal annually: PLN

State electricity firm PT PLN said on Tuesday it would need around 30 million tons of low-rank coal annually should all the 10,000 Megawatt coal-fired power plants that it is planning to build come into operation in 2010.

PLN acting president director Djuanda Nugraha Ibrahim said PLN was currently preparing documents for the tender(s)of coal procurement for the power plants and is scheduled to launch the tendering process in three months.

The government has ordered PLN to build a number of coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 10,000 MW within the next three years in order to reduce the country's dependence on power plants using expensive oil as fuel. (godang)