Indonesia is expected to nearly double domestic consumption of thermal coal over the next eight years to help meet annual growth in electricity demand of around 8.4 percent, Reuters has reported the state power company as saying on Friday.
Electricity demand growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy has outpaced the rise in generating capacity, resulting in frequent blackouts in cities and leaving many rural areas without access to regular power supply.
The government and state utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) are racing to catch up with 60 gigawatts of new power plants in the pipeline, with plans for coal to fuel a greater portion of electrical supply than other sources.
The increase in Indonesia’s domestic thermal coal demand is a result of a push to meet the country’s ballooning energy needs with a plentiful resource that is cheaper than other fuels, PLN coal business director Helmi Najamuddin told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference.
Indonesia is the world’s top exporter of thermal coal, but demand at home is seen climbing to 82.89 million metric tons this year, up more than 13 percent from 73.09 million metric tons last year, PLN data presented at the conference on Friday shows.
Next year the state utility expects a further 13 percent increase in thermal coal consumption to 93.77 million metric tons, and a rise to 151 million metric tons consumed in 2022.
By 2022, Indonesia hopes to increase domestic coal use to account for 66 percent of electricity produced, up from around 52 percent now.
Indonesia’s electricity demand will rise to 207 terawatt-hours (TWh) this year, up from 189 TWh last year, PLN said.
The utility expects Indonesia’s electricity demand to climb to 386 TWh in 2022, up 86 percent from this year’s figure.
As of March, Indonesia’s total installed capacity had reached 47,788 megawatts, with PLN contributing 74 percent of the total.
Government data shows roughly 20 percent of the nation’s population of almost 247 million remained without access to electricity as of last year.
By Fergus Jensen