April 8, 2024 - Indonesia's 4.71GW Paiton coal-fired power plant, the country's largest power generation facility, is to increase biomass use as part of the country's emissions reduction efforts.

PLN EPI, which is the fuel procurement subsidiary of state-owned utility PLN, has increased biomass delivery targets for the power plant in east Java to 259,581t in 2024, an increase of nearly 60pc compared with last year, the company said.

The 800MW No.1 and No.2 units are expected to consume a combined 154,519t this year, a 10pc increase compared with 2023. Biomass consumption at the 600MW No.9 unit is expected to increase more than fourfold to 105,062t from 22,741t in 2023. The increase at No.9 is because of the full implementation of biomass co-firing following initial test runs in 2023, PLN EPI said.

The rest of the generation units at Paiton have yet to start biomass co-firing as they are owned by private-sector companies. Only No.1, No.2 and No.9 are owned by PLN, which is required to implement co-firing at its coal power plants. These three units currently use 5pc biomass but PLN aims to increase this to at least 10pc over the next few years, it said.

Paiton mainly uses wood sawdust as its biomass source. PLN EPI said it has already agreed supply contracts for most of this year's supplies. It is looking at sources located close to the power plant to minimise transportation costs and help develop a biomass economy for surrounding areas.