Accurate prediction of coal demand is essential for optimizing energy resources in long-term power system planning. This paper examines the coal demand in North China from 2007 to 2022 using econometric methods to identify key influencing factors as input variables. Then, the Sparrow Search Algorithm (SSA) is used to optimize the key parameters of the Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LSSVM) algorithm to enhance the prediction accuracy of coal demand. Case studies are conducted on actual data in North China, and the results show that the proposed hybrid SSA and LSSVM method outperforms traditional approaches in small-sample, multivariable forecasting, making it suitable for predictions in long-term power system planning.