A new plasma lighting system was developed to ignite and combust low-reaction fuels for heat generation. In this study, the possibility of usage of coal energy was investigated as an accompanying combustion fuel to the plasma torch produced by electric energy. For this purpose, brown coal BR-1 was adopted. Experiments with such coal were carried out at a mass flow rate over 100 kg/h and with a 17,5 kW plasmatron. Reliable and stable ignition and combustion of coal-water suspension with plasma has been proven with experimental results. During the combustion in the developed plasma coal burner, complete carbon burn-out was achieved with the release of a thermal power over 290 kW. The lifetime of electrodes of such a plasma coal burner is expected to be more than 1000 hours. The low-power plasma system is produced in a compact and modular structure that can fit into most of the pulverized coal boiler designs, eliminating the necessity of the additional high-reaction fuel - fuel oil or gas.