Power plant coal stocks meet DoE standards for 30 days’ worth of supply
THE Department of Energy (DoE) said on Thursday that coal-fired power plants all have 30 days’ worth of coal reserves, with some having as much as 50, as the market tightened for thermal coal following Indonesia’s one-month coal export ban.
“All of them have met the 30-day requirement. In fact, some of them even have excess which can cover up to 45-50 days,” the director of the DoE’s Electric Power Industry Management Bureau, Mario C. Marasigan said at a virtual briefing on Thursday.
In a meeting with the companies on Tuesday, the Energy department required full reports on their coal requirements, the status of imports, and the schedule of deliveries in order to provide the authorities a better picture of the power situation.
“We have yet to receive full reports from the companies. Actually, we have assessed that we have coal inventories but the problem is what will happen (to) their expected schedule of deliveries,” he said.
Mr. Marasigan said one scenario that needs to be addressed is whether the ports can handle the delivery surge once Indonesia’s ban is lifted.
He said some companies’ imports were in the advanced stages of the Indonesian export process, having been loaded onto vessels awaiting final clearance, when the ban was imposed.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest thermal coal exporter, suspended exports on Jan. 1 after its state power utility reported dangerously low inventory levels at its domestic power stations, Reuters reported.
The DoE estimates that the Philippines imported 69.51% of its coal requirement of 42.476 million metric tons (MMT) in 2020.
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has said that the Philippines imported 2.3 MMTs of coal monthly from Indonesia last year.
Mr. Cusi announced on Monday that he had written on Jan. 6 to his Indonesian counterpart, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Afirin Tasrif, appealing for the ban to be lifted, specifically for the Philippines.
Power companies operating coal-fired plants earlier told BusinessWorld that they are looking at tapping other sources of the fuel should the Indonesia ban be extended. — Marielle C. Lucenio
