Indonesian state utility company PLN has estimated that the country will need 81 million metric tons of coal this year to fulfill demand from all of its coal-fired power plants.
Demand rose 15 percent from last year’s coal consumption at 70.6 million tons, as some PLN power plants and independent power procurers are scheduled to go online this year, Harlen, head of PLN’s coal division, said on Tuesday.
“We are asking the government to allocate about 81 million tons this year,” Harlan said.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry would soon set the domestic market obligation figure, setting a minimum amount of coal the producers need to supply the local market in order to ensure sufficient power generation.
Coal currently accounts for a third of the country power generation, the second largest energy source after oil, which accounts for 44 percent.
Indonesia produced 383 million metric tons of coal in 2015, down 16 percent from the 2014 output of 459 million tons.