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State power company Perusahaan Listrik Negara is likely to exceed its diesel usage quota this year because of delays in the completion of several coal-fired plants and problems in procuring gas, a senior official said on Saturday.

“With many of the coal-fired power plants still not operational, we will be forced to use more diesel,” said the company’s head of oil and gas procurement, Suryadi Mardjoeki.

According to PLN data, between January and September the company nearly exceeded its quota for the use of expensive fuel, called high-speed diesel.

During the same period its use of coal, as part of its bigger plan to shift away from the use of more expensive fuel sources, was still far below the target.

PLN had burned 8.3 million kiloliters of HSD as of the end of September, or 94 percent of the 8.8 million kiloliter quota set in its budget for this year. It had burned 19 million tons of coal, which is 48 percent of the 2011 target of 40 million tons.

The government’s fast-track electricity program calls for a total of 30,000 megawatts of additional electricity supply for PLN, which is to be added in three phases. The first phase involves the development of coal-fired plants able to deliver 10,000 MW of power. The two other phases would focus more on geothermal and hydropower plants.

Power generation from coal-fired plants, though, has fallen short of that goal.

By September, only two coal-fired plants with a combined output of 1,615 MW were operational compared to a forecast of 15 plants with a total 4,592 MW of capacity.

Another problem for PLN has been securing gas. It will receive 217 trillion British thermal units of gas this year, or 73 percent of what it had expected in its 2011 budget. PLN hoped to secure 296 trillion BTU of gas this year.

Suryadi cited the Bentu block in Riau as an example of a shortfall in gas delivery from Energi Mega Persada, an energy company engaged in oil and gas exploration in the area.

And the Muara Tawar plant in Bekasi is using two million kiloliters of diesel at a cost of Rp 1.6 billion ($180,000) per day to make up for gas shortages.

BPMigas, the upstream oil and gas regulator, promised to supply 40 million standard cubic feet per day from the Jambi Merang field in Jambi but Suryadi said PLN was yet to see any of it.

“BPMigas promised the gas would be delivered on October 20, but until now we haven’t seen any supply,” he said.

PLN has not been able to reduce its reliance on diesel, the most expensive fuel for power generation. Diesel accounted for 24 percent of total fuel usage in the first half.

Gas contributed 21 percent of PLN’s total fuel mix while coal was 43 percent. The remainder came from hydro-generated power, at 7 percent, and geothermal, at 5 percent.