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.