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AKARTA: The Technology Assessment and Application Agency (BPPT) signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan’s Tsukishima and Korea’s K-Coal on Thursday for studying the possibility of using steam-tube dryer technology (STD) at the coal-fired power stations of state electricity company PLN.

As PLN has significantly expanded its coal-fired power generation capacity, it has cooperated with BPPT to seek new technology to enable its power plants to use low-calorie coal as stocks of high-rank coal in the country have decreased.

“Since 60 percent of our coal output now is low rank and with a calorific value under 5,000 kcal per kilogram and only 40 percent of high-rank quality, PLN will have to take more low-calorie coal for its generation because the high-rank is more profitable for the export market,” said BPPT spokesman Unggul Prijanto after the signing ceremony.

PLN is expanding its coal-fired power generation capacity by 2,100 megawatts (MW) within the next three years as part of its 10,000-MW expansion program that was launched in 2006.

BPPT estimated that PLN’s low-rank coal demand will increase to 95.3 million tons in 2014, twice as large as its consumption of 40.8 million tons in 2010.

According to the study and test conducted by BPPT with three types of local coal with different water content levels, STD from the Japan-Korea company is the most feasible technology to be applied in Indonesia.