S

tate owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) is mulling lowering its dependency on diesel fuel at its power plants, a move that would save the company at least Rp 10 trillion (US$860 million).

PLN'€™s chief of oil-based fuel and gas division, Suryadi Mardjoeki, said the company planned to use other sources of energy, such as coal, gas and biodiesel.

'€œWe plan to reduce oil-fuel usage to 6.4 million kiloliters this year. By reducing the oil fuel use by 1 million kiloliters, we can save Rp 10 trillion,'€ he said.

Suryadi said the amount of money saved could be higher should PLN surpass its gas usage target. He claimed the company had saved around Rp 28 trillion last year as it utilized non-diesel energy sources.

According to Suryadi, last year'€™s saving was driven by the usage of 410 trillion British thermal unit (TBtu) of gas, which surpassed the company'€™s own target of 400 tbtu.

The government is striving to encourage the usage of natural gas to reduce the country'€™s dependency on oil-fuel.

Based on the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force (SKKMigas), the domestic market only absorbed about 52 percent of the gas produced last year.

For this year'€™s gas allocation, the regulatory body expects to see around 54 percent of total gas produced to be absorbed by domestic consumers.

PLN has successfully increased the gas usage, albeit a little. Contrarily, the company was unable to increase coal usage.

The company reported it used 44 million tons of coal to feed its power plants, which was lower than its target of 49 million tons.

This year, the company is targeting to see the usage of 55 million tons of coal, which is expected to reduce the usage of oil-fuel.

Under this year'€™s plan, PLN is also expecting to use 431 TBtu gas. However, Suryadi, has set his own target to see higher usage of up to 440 TBtu.

'€œIt depends on how much gas we will receive [from supplier],'€ he said.

Among the power plants to receive more gas, PLN is expecting to see delivery of gas to its Tambak Lorok power plant in Central Java.

The power plant is awaiting the delivery of 10 million standard cubic per day (mmscfd) of gas as early as next week: the first stage of delivery from Gundih block, which is operated by state owned PT Pertamina.

The delivery of gas will be increased gradually to finally touch 50 mmscfd by April, according to Suryadi.

In its attempt to increase gas usage, PLN is also planning to sign a contract for the delivery of compressed natural gas (CNG) to its power plant in Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara from Gresik in East Java.

The CNG usage will also be expanded to other power plants, such as one in Bangkanai in Central
Kalimantan.

Along with the usage of more gas and coal, PLN is also boosting its consumption of biodiesel.

Following the signing of agreement with three palm oil producers in January on the supply of 6,720 tons of processed palm oil to feed a number of power plants, PLN is expecting to sign new contracts of delivery for 123,000 tons of biodiesel this April. The new contracts are estimated to be worth Rp 3.3 trillion.

PLN president director Nur Pamudji has said he targeted to see the usage of biodiesel of up to 1 million tons so the company could reduce its dependency on fossil fuel.

The lower usage of oil-based fuel in generating electricity is expected to help the government press down imports of oil, which have increased and in turn affected the current account balance.