TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned electricity firm PLN on Monday announced that it has obtained coal supply commitments for January 2022 that amounts to 3.2 million tons to maintain national electricity production this month.

This comes after the government imposed a ban on coal exports to make sure domestic supply can be fulfilled to power PLN power plants that in general rely on coal.

“However, PLN asserts that the critical phase has not passed,” said PLN corporate communication VP Agung Murdifi in a statement on January 3.

The additional 3.2 million coal supply commitment is obtained from firms with mining permits (IUP) and special mining business permits (IUPK). With the supply chain that is still generally considered unsafe, PLN will prioritize coal distributions to power plants that have logged a low operational days (HOP).

The government emphasized that coal supplies for PLN power plants are classified as a national interest that must be prioritized by every IUP and IUPK holders in the domestic coal mining industry.

This complies with Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution where the commodity must be used for the prosperity of the people, including in this case the fulfillment of primary energy for the reliability of PLN's operations.

Read: Govt Explains Reasoning Behind Indonesia's Coal Export Ban

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