PLTU Bukit Asam is a 30 MW coal power plant in South Sumatra, Indonesia. It is operated by PT BA for own use. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 38k homes (estimated). It ranks #353 of 401 Indonesia power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1987, it is around 39 years old — long-established. In context, coal supplies about 61.5% of Indonesia's electricity; the national grid averages 680 gCO₂/kWh (18.1% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1000919.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: WRI Global Power Plant Database source-record (legacy); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 30 MW, PLTU Bukit Asam is below the median coal plant in Indonesia (220 MW). Technically it is described as subcritical. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by PT BA for own use.
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 3.7°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #177 largest coal power plant of 191 in Indonesia by capacity.
Indonesia has 191 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 101,995 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -3.7316, 103.7975 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
PLTU Bukit Asam is a 30 MW source-record coal power plant in South Sumatra, Indonesia, commissioned in 1987.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 37,542 homes (estimated).
PLTU Bukit Asam is operated by PT BA for own use.
