PLN to Retrofit Coal-Fired Plants to Use Low-Calorie Coal

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The President Director of PT PLN (Persero), Darmawan Prasodjo, stated that the company will retrofit steam-fired power plants (PLTU) to enable the use of low-calorific coal, thereby preventing rotational power outages.

“Referring to the system in Java, we still need to perform retrofitting on our PLTU,” Darmawan said during a Hearing (RDP) with Commission XII of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) in Jakarta on Thursday.

Darmawan explained that through these modifications, power plants will be able to utilise coal with lower calorific values. The retrofitting of the Suralaya 6 and 7 power units serves as Darmawan’s reference for the success of such modifications.

Both units are now capable of using low-calorific coal, approximately 4,100–4,300 kcal/kg, which is lower than the original specification requiring 4,600–4,800 kcal/kg.

“Following the success of the retrofit at Suralaya 6 and 7, we are now conducting feasibility studies for this project across all PLN power plants,” said Darmawan.

Darmawan believes that modifying PLTU could serve as a long-term solution to address the supply issues of medium-rank or medium-calorific coal.

Currently, Darmawan noted, the production of low-calorific coal is higher compared to the production of medium to high-calorific coal.

It was the supply constraints of medium-calorific coal that led PLN to implement rotational blackouts in mid-June 2026.

“The problem of the mismatch between national coal production, which is dominated by low-calorific coal, and the dwindling production of medium and high-calorific coal, is something we are resolving by retrofitting our power plants,” Darmawan said.

For the short term, PLN has received additional supplies of coal with calorific values above 4,500 kcal/kg.