Bahlil Forms Coal Procurement Team for PLN, Here Are the Details

Jakarta - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) will form a coal procurement team for PT PLN (Persero) to guarantee transparency and certainty of primary energy supply for national power plants.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia explained that the formation of this team is a direct directive from President Prabowo Subianto for more precise oversight of primary energy procurement. The team will involve various cross-sectoral agencies to ensure business processes and pricing are conducted professionally.

“So, in order to ensure coordination, cooperation, and certainty for PLN to obtain coal, and in the interest of transparency, we requested permission from the President, and the President’s directive is to form a team,” he stated in Jakarta on Thursday (18/6/2026).

The procurement team will be staffed internally by the Ministry of ESDM, namely the Directorate General of Minerals and Coal and the Inspectorate General. Additionally, oversight elements from the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) and PT PLN (Persero) will be involved to synchronise technical and administrative data in the field.

“The procurement team will consist of ESDM, specifically the Directorate General of Minerals and Coal, then the Inspector General of ESDM, then BPKP, and PLN. So that we can understand and ensure there are no technical issues,” he added.

The government is seeking to minimise the company’s operating expenditure (opex) because high costs will certainly increase the compensation burden that must be borne by state finances.

“In order to minimise the opex, the state must be present with professional supervision. Because PLN is subsidised upstream in coal and gas, with gas receiving the HGBT price. That is upstream. Then downstream it receives compensation and subsidies,” he continued.

The Ministry of ESDM noted that PLN’s total coal requirement is recorded at 154 million tonnes for 2026, but the contract commitments already secured have only reached 134 million tonnes. This team is expected to immediately resolve the remaining shortfall of around 20 million tonnes to avoid potential disruptions to public electricity services.

“Of the total 154 million tonnes needed by PLN in 2026, PLN has already contracted 134 million. So there is only about 18 to 20 million left. Overall, there is no problem,” he concluded.