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PLN’s coal shortage over, ministers say
The domestic supply shortage cited as the reason for the export ban has been resolved, according to government officials.
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Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan speaks at the Army Staff and Command College (Seskoad) in Bandung, West Java, on Nov. 18, 2021. (Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment/Public relations team)
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wo ministers have said that state-owned electricity company PLN had secured enough coal to meet its power generation needs, addressing the underlying issue behind Indonesia’s coal export ban that has rattled global markets.
“Right now, there seems to be no problem [with supplies]; the emergency is over,” Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday.
Luhut had met with coal mining companies and several ministries on Thursday to review the coal export ban, but had not made a decision on the matter.
Indonesia, the world's biggest exporter of coal used in electricity generation, announced a monthlong ban on coal shipments starting Jan. 1 to address a shortage in PLN coal supplies that risked causing widespread blackouts, wrote the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry in a statement.
The ministry said 20 coal-fired power stations with a combined generation capacity of 10,850 megawatts were at risk of outage because of low coal stocks.
The government blamed the shortage on coal producers’ failure to comply with the domestic market obligation (DMO) that mandated that a quarter of each producer's output be set aside for domestic needs, with prices capped at US$70 per ton.
Concurring with Luhut, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir said Thursday that PLN’s coal supply was “sufficient” to meet regular needs, but he reiterated PLN would still have to come up with a long-term solution to ensure supply continuity.
