Jakarta – State electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has projected its fuel consumption this year to reach 11.1 million to 11.4 million kiloliters.

Speaking to the press here on Thursday, Chief of PLN's Primary Energy Unit Nasri Sebayang said that by the end of August 2008, the company's fuel consumption had already reached 8.6 million kiloliters.

"Until the end of September, our fuel consumption will exceed 9.1 million kiloliters as quoted in the revised 2008 state budget," he said, as quoted by Antara.

The surge in fuel consumption was the result of rising power demands which grew by 7 percent, well above the projected 1.9 percent in the revised 2008 state budget, he said.

The higher power consumption growth was partly because many industries which had previously relied on generator sets for the supply of their power needs switched to PLN, he said.

In 2009, the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) have agreed to set PLN's fuel consumption at 7.91 million kiloliters with power demands expected to grow by 7 percent.

The drop in fuel consumption is the result of the optimum use of gas and the operation of a number of new coal-fired power plants this year.

The fuel consumption of 7.91 million kiloliters consists of 4.59 million kiloliters of high speed diesel (HSD) and 3.32 million kiloliters of marine fuel oil.