Govt to speed up Java's south transmission line
Leony Aurora The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The government will speed up the construction of Java's south extra-high voltage transmission line by working with local administrations to settle land acquisition problems, targeting to complete the line by October.
The government may use Presidential Instruction No. 36/2005 on compulsory land acquisition for public projects if it cannot reach an agreement with locals, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said over the weekend.
"We'll try to be persuasive. It's better (to settle the problems) through dialog," he said.
The instruction, issued in May, enables the state to forcibly take over private land that has been earmarked for development purposes, even when owners do not agree to the compensation offered.
"We'll finish (the construction) in October," said Purnomo.
The construction of the south transmission line is deemed crucial to support the north line as a back-up system.
Last week, a massive blackout hit much of Java for as long as 12 hours as a glitch in an interconnection system in the north line caused a chain reaction that shut down two major power plants on the island.
State power firm PLN vice president of transmission and distribution Herman Darnel Ibrahim said there were six locations in Depok, West Java, as well as two in Bantul and one in Klaten, Central Java, where land owners opposed the planned line.
"Locals in Bantul requested Rp 100 billion (about US$10 million) in compensation to let the line pass through," he said, adding that the amount was unreasonable.
PLN has delayed the completion date for the south line several times from last year due to land acquisition problems. It last named April next year as the completion date.
The south line is also crucial to ensure that supply from three planned power plants can be used optimally, said the general manager of the Java-Bali grid's center for power distribution, Muljo Adji.
"The north line is limited in how much power it can transmit," said Muljo.
The additional power supply from the three new plants early next year cannot be used optimally without the south line, he said.
Coal-fired Tanjung Jati B power plant and Cilacap plant, both in Central Java, will have a capacity of 1,320 megawatts (MW) and 600 MW, respectively. Cilegon power plant in West Java will generate 720 MW of electricity.
Without additional supply to keep up with demand, which increases about 6 percent annually, power security in densely populated Java and Bali islands will be threatened.
The usable capacity in the Java-Bali grid hovers at around 15,500 MW from the installed capacity of 19,615 MW. At present, power reserves at peak hours stand at about 600 MW.
PLN in July warned of a possible power shortage in October as demand increases on hotter days in the dry season, while capacities of hydropower plants lessen with reduced rainfall.
Power demand in the Java-Bali grid at peak times may reach 15,245 MW. As water levels in reservoirs decrease, hydropower capacities may drop by half, which means there will be only 120 MW in reserve.
;JP;LEA;CD; ANPAf..r.. PLN-blackout-cause
JP/13/PLN
Protection system fault caused blackout: PLN
Preliminary findings of state power firm PLN indicate that a malfunction in the protection system in Cibinong's relay station in West Java was the cause of the recent Java-Bali blackout, an official says.
The disruption fault recorder did not record any interferences in the network, and yet a directional earth fault (DEF) protection relay disengaged from the network, general manager of the Java-Bali grid's center for power distribution Muljo Adji said.
"We think there may have been a component malfunction," he said. The relay station last underwent maintenance on April 10.
The glitch separated the Java-Bali grid into two areas -- Jakarta-Banten, the supply for which was reduced by 2,560 megawatts (MW), and the rest of the island, which experienced an oversupply of 2,560 MW.
The oversupply in the eastern part caused the Paiton power plant in East Java to shut down, while the western subsystem could not sustain itself with the supply reduction, prompting power plants in Suralaya, Muara Karang and Tanjung Priok to stop operation.
The head of the Bandung Institute of Technology's (ITB) School of Electrical Engineering, Isnuwardianto, said that PLN should continue to investigate why the DEF protection relay tripped.
"The protection relay may disengage due to external causes," he said. "PLN should perform a simulation of what happened to check the system's reaction," said Isnu, who is also an independent commissioner at PLN.