Factories worried over possible blackouts

Factories worried over possible blackouts

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The dry season became potentially more painful for footwear
businessman Djimanto when he heard warnings of possible power
shortages in Java and Bali as a result of the drought there.

"That is terrible. It (a power shortage) could cut our
production by half," Djimanto told The Jakarta Post over the
weekend.

"Electricity is vital for our office and factory. How can we
work without an adequate power supply?" he said.

Edi Sulistya, an official at textile company PT Grandtex
Textile Company, expressed similar concerns.

"We have never had any power disruptions before. If we do now,
it will quite be bad for production," Edi told the Post.

Both have strong reason to worry, as state power firm PT PLN
has painted a gloomy picture of power supplies in Java and Bali,
the country's most densely populated islands, in the coming days.

PLN warned that if the drought continues through next month,
a power shortage was imminent on both islands as a number of
hydropower plants would have to stop operating due to a lack of
water.

Hydropower plants contribute some 2,536 megawatts (MW) to the
Java-Bali network, or 14 percent of the total supply for the
region.

At present, PLN can only supply slightly above the peak load
of about 13,250 MW, from a total installed capacity of 18,000 MW.
This leaves the Jawa-Bali power system vulnerable to power
disruptions.

PLN warned the potential power supply shortfall could become
more serious when a number of coal and oil-fired power plants
underwent routine overhauls scheduled for October.

Although industry only makes up 0.2 percent of the total 30
million electricity subscribers, it accounts for up to 42.1
percent of PLN's energy sales of 84,520 gigawatts per hours
(GwH).

PLN has advised industrial customers to cut their power
consumption and not to operate during the peak hours between 6
p.m. and 10 p.m.

The firm also urged its industrial customers to use their own
power generators, which is better known in the industry as
"captive power", to cover any power shortfalls.

"To tell you the truth, we don't know what we are going to do
if there are rotating blackouts.

"We only have a diesel-fueled power generator, which has too
small a capacity to supply power to our production units around
the clock," Edi said.

Grandtex, which produces denim for export, operates one
factory on the outskirts of Bandung, West Java.

Djimanto said: "We cannot rely on generators because they are
only for emergency use and not for supporting production for the
whole day."

Djimanto said the power supply for footwear factories was
particularly crucial in October, when orders usually peaked.

"Orders for footwear, particularly for the domestic market,
will reach their peak in October ahead of the big holidays at the
end of the year," Djimanto, who is also a board member of the
Indonesian Footwear Association, said.

If production is severely interrupted due to rotating
blackouts, footwear companies will be forced to import shoes to
fill orders, he said.