Bisnis.com, JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, or ESDM, issued'a crucial policy, curbing coal exports from January 1 to 31, 2022, as coal supply to fuel power plants depletes. On the other hand, business players protested the sudden decision.
The regulation, stated in a decree B-1605/MB.05/DJB.B/2021 dated December 31, 2021, stipulates three main points. First, the government bans coal producers from exporting coal from January 1 to 31, 2022, as the coal supplies for PLN and independent power producer coal-fired power plants (PLTU) are critically low.
The government mandates producers to supply all coal to meet electricity demands for the public interest under the domestic market obligation (DMO) and assignments to companies or contracts with PLN and IPP.
If there is coal at the loading port or loaded on the ship, the government will instruct it to be immediately delivered to PLN and IPP-owned power plants. ESDM Ministry promised to evaluate the policy based on coal supply realization for PLN and IPP power plants on January 5, 2022.
Director-General of Mineral and Coal, Ridwan Jamaluddin, said that the ban is set to meet coal demands of 20 PLTUs with a power of around 10,850 megawatts (MW).
"From 5.1 million metric tons of assignments from the government, until January 1, 2022, only 35,000 metric tons were fulfilled or less than 1 percent," he said.
