Power crisis in Lampung intensifying<\/p>\n
Oyos Saroso HN
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nBandarlampung, Lampung<\/p>\n
Blackouts imposed by state-owned electricity company PLN in
\nLampung over the last several months have caused economic losses
\nand moved customers to refuse to pay their bills.<\/p>\n
A gas station owner here said he had seen his daily revenue
\ndecline due to the blackouts, which now take place every two
\ndays. The blackouts originally took place every three days.<\/p>\n
"I was already suffering losses when the power blackouts
\noccurred every three days. I don't know how much money I'm losing
\nnow," the businessman, Effendi, 55, said over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Internet cafe operator Tony is also angered by the situation.
\n"It might be OK if the electricity went off for two hours, but
\nnow the power blackouts can last the whole day, inflicting
\nhundreds of thousands of rupiah in losses."<\/p>\n
PLN has been applying blackouts of between four and eight
\nhours from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. every two days since Sept. 13. The
\nblackouts were ordered in response to a lack of water to operate
\nhydroelectric power plants in Way Besai and Batutegi, the main
\npower suppliers for the province.<\/p>\n
The situation is worse in West Lampung, East Lampung, Way
\nKanan and Tanggamus regencies, where power outages occur almost
\ndaily.<\/p>\n
Consumer protection activist Saparudin, 30, said Way Kanan had
\nnot had electricity at night for the last six months, prompting
\nthousands of subscribers from eight districts in the regency to
\nstop paying the bills.<\/p>\n
He said the electricity went off at least three times a day.<\/p>\n
"The frequent blackouts have damaged electric-powered home
\nappliances. Can you imagine, these sudden electricity blackouts
\ntake place three times a day, just like taking medicine.<\/p>\n
"What upsets us is the PLN meter readers who charge us for
\nmore than we use," Saparudin said.<\/p>\n
As of August no fewer than 30,000 PLN customers in Central
\nLampung, East Lampung, Way Kanan and Metro have had their power
\ncut off for refusing to pay their electricity bills.<\/p>\n
The head of the operational unit at PLN's Tanjungkarang
\noffice, Djoko Sutojo, said the company had to impose the
\nblackouts because the prolonged drought had reduced the
\ncapability of power plants in the province by 50 percent.<\/p>\n
"The hydroelectric power plants used to generate up to 258
\nmegawatts of power, but now their capacity has been reduced to
\nonly 125 megawatts," Sutojo said.<\/p>\n
Because of the lack of water, the turbines in the plants can
\nonly work between two and five hours a day, with a maximum power
\ngeneration of 70 megawatts. The remaining power is now supplied
\nfrom the Bukit Asam hydroelectric plant in West Sumatra and some
\ndiesel power plants in Lampung, which can generate a total of 260
\nmegawatts.<\/p>\n
But Sutojo said only up to 100 megawatts of power from Bukit
\nAsam was able to reach Lampung because many transmitters
\nconnecting the plant to the province were inconveniently located.<\/p>\n
PLN's Lampung office has been forced to buy 12 megawatts of
\npower from shrimp breeding company PT Central Pertiwi Bahari,
\nwhich operates its own power plant.<\/p>\n
"But we still cannot meet demand because the number of
\nsubscribers in increasing," Sutojo said.<\/p>\n
There are 715,000 customers registered with the PLN office in
\nLampung.<\/p>\n
An economist said the electricity crisis was keeping foreign
\ninvestors from the province.<\/p>\n
"We have no choice but build more power plants to serve people
\nin the province. The Way Besai hydro power plant supplies most of
\nits power to people in the neighboring province of South
\nSumatra," the economist from Lampung University, Wahyu Sasongko,
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
PLN has also warned of imminent power outages affecting
\nJakarta if heavy rains do not begin before October. The water
\nlevel in three reservoirs is now dangerously low, nearly 70
\npercent below normal, enabling the hydropower plants at Saguling
\nand Cirata to only generate half of their normal capacity of 700
\nmegawatts and 1,000 megawatts respectively.<\/p>",
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