Coal Switching Evaluation on Coal-Fired Power Plants: Case Study in Indonesia

Indonesia’s energy mix is still dominated by coal, reaching 67.21% in 2022. On the other hand, the coal crisis is a significant challenge to providing electricity needs. Hence, the coal specifications consumed are commonly lower than the coal-fired power plant’s design. In addition, efficiency is essential to reduce production costs, and coal switching is an alternative resolution to keep electricity production. This study compares two coal with a calorific value of 4,500 kcal/kg and 4,200 kcal/kg by considering the equivalent availability factor (EAF), equivalent forced outage rate (EFOR), production cost, and environmental aspect in six months period. The result shows EAF are 89.65% and 89.36%, EFOR 2.98% and 4.02%, cost savings on fuel components is 9.07-32.80 Rp/kWh, and emission concentration is below the standard. It was found that the coal switching program did not have a negative impact on operational, financial, and environmental aspects.