Drought threatens power supply

Drought threatens power supply

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Java and Bali could face a serious power shortage if the drought
here continues until October, when several power plants are
scheduled to shut down for maintenance, according to state
electricity company PT PLN.

PLN said its program anticipated the annual drought, but the
situation this year is particularly worrying.

"It is worrying because the water for hydropower plants
becomes scarce just as other power plants temporarily shut down
for maintenance," Herman Darnel Ibrahim, the director of PLN's
power plants and distribution, told reporters on Tuesday.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has said that the
drought this year will be harsher than last year's. Water
supplies to several dams in Java have also declined.

Herman said that the drought had already cut the power supply
by between 500-800 megawatt (MW) on the Java-Bali power grid,
which has a total power generation capacity of 18,000 MW.

Hydropower plants supply some 2,536 MW to the Java-Bali grid,
or 14 percent of total supplies.

Another 2,700 MW will be cut when several power plants,
particularly oil-fired and coal-fired plants, undergo routine
maintenance in October.

"The plants have to be temporarily shut down to maintain their
prime performance. If we force them to continue running, it will
bring severe consequences," Herman added.

Because of the drought, the maintenance program, and PLN's own
power consumption, Herman estimated that PLN could only supply a
total of 13,700 MW to the public, compared with the peak load of
about 13,250 MW.

This means there will only be a power reserve of 450 MW, while
ideally the system should have a minimum power reserve of 615 MW
or higher, in case of unforeseen problems at any one of the
plants.

With such a thin reserve, Java and Bali face a high risk of
blackouts.

Herman said PLN could not do much to prevent such a critical
situation, as it could not add power to the system to balance the
drop. Additional power is not expected to come into the system
until next year, when the re-powering of Muara Tawar power plant
in West Java is scheduled to finish. The plant is set to supply
around 700 MW.

PLN has prepared several measures to prevent a possible power
shortage in October, including urging the public to reduce their
power consumption.

"We are trying to manage the demands for power by urging
people to save power, for example, by using energy-saving light
bulbs," he said.

Further, Herman said in the case of power shortages, PLN will
buy captive power from industries.

Captive power is generated by privately owned power plants,
built by certain companies to supply production activities.

Additionally, PLN will set up a center to manage the potential
crisis.

Herman said the center will coordinate the strategies of other
government agencies to handle the crisis, as well as power supply
and demand. "A crisis situation will be handled by the center,
which will operate until the problem subsists," he said.