City electric bill cut by Rp 1.3b

JAKARTA: The Jakarta administration will save Rp 1.3 billion, or 14 percent, from its monthly electricity bills, as a result of the current energy conservation drive.

"This figure is just an estimate ... based only on the number of street lights being turned off at nights," head of the City Illumination Agency, Pinondang Simanjuntak, said on Sunday.

The administration paid a Rp 111.4 billion electric bill to the state power company PT PLN last year, he said.

Since July 14, following the Gubernatorial Instruction No. 77/2005 on energy conservation, the agency has turned off street lights in many parts of the capital from 10 p.m. onward.

Only the lights along the main thoroughfares and particular neighborhoods are still on at that time.

"We keep some areas alit to prevent crimes," Pinondang added.

He also said that PLN would install a power meter on 6,000 street lights to accurately measure the power usage of each. Currently, he said, the company only approximated the usage based on the voltage. -- Antara