Clean electricity helps rural community
Clean electricity helps rural community
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Two workers, Ian Sofian, 30, and Ase Muslihat, 35, work alternate
12-hour shifts in the turbine room controlling a mini hydro-power
plant that supports the community at Cinta Mekar Village, Subang
regency, West Java.
"The operation of this facility supports our community in the
village in terms of providing access to electricity, social
services, sustainable income as well as schooling for the
children of the poorer members of the community," said Ian.
The 2x60 KwH power plant was established in 2004 by a company
called Hidropiranti Inti Bakti Swadaya (HIBS) under a pro-poor
public private partnership project, supported by state-owned
electricity company PLN, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral
Resources, a non-governmental organization called the Institute
of Business and Economy for the Populace (IBEKA), and the United
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(Unescap).
Under the partnership program, HIBS sells power to the public
via PLN. Part of the profit from the electricity charges would go
back to the local community to finance various other projects.
The success of the project has prompted IBEKA and HIBS
officials to seek additional outside funds to help finance the
construction of a local training center, which will help empower
the local community.
The executive secretary of Unescap, Kim Hak-Su, visited Cinta
Mekar Village on Monday to lay the foundation stone for the first
Pro-Poor Public Private Partnership (5P) Resource and Training
Center in the world.
"The model, developed and tested in Cinta Mekar, has already
positioned itself as a success cases for further replication in
Indonesia and elsewhere in the region," Kim said.
Tri Mumpuni Iskandar, the director of IBEKA, said that the
training center would empower the community by accommodating the
needs of the populace.
"As a facilitator, I hope that our activities to raise funds
together with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources will
result in the construction of the training center within the next
two years," Mumpuni told The Jakarta Post.
"We have routinely been providing guidance to the villagers by
supporting their small enterprises," she said.
She said that her organization had helped the villagers create
attractive packaging for their cassava chips by putting the Cinta
Mekar logo on it.
She said that her organization has helped the children of the
community get better schooling. The organization has also donated
funds to the poor using part of the profit from the mini hydro-
power plant.
According to Mumpuni, the power plant generates a gross
monthly income of nearly US$2,970. The revenue is shared equally
between the community and HIBS after taxes, operation costs and
maintenance costs are deducted.
The net profit, totaling US$1,088, will be allocated to such
endeavors as electricity for the poor, education, health and co-
operative development.
She said that mini hydro-power plants are clean and renewable
sources of electricity that are friendly to the environment.
"The hydro-power plant does not consume fuel and it will not
produce pollution," she said. (004)