Java-Bali region prone to blackouts: PLN
Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The country's main Java-Bali power grid will continue to run with thin reserves until April due to the lack of fresh power supply despite growing power demands, making the region vulnerable to rotating blackouts.
Basuki Prajitno, general manager of power plants and load management of state-owned electricity firm PT PLN said demand for electricity had been picking up since early this year.
"We project (that the) demand for electricity will reach 800 Megawatts (MW), while our existing reserve is only 600 MW," Basuki said on the sidelines of a World Energy Council seminar on Wednesday.
He added that in the event that any big power plant encountered technical problems, rotating blackouts would be unavoidable.
The Java-Bali power grid is pivotal for the country because the region is the most populated area, where huge manufacturing companies operate.
The Java-Bali power grid has an installed capacity of 18,660 MW or 80 percent of the total installed capacity of 21,000 MW in the country.
Of the total capacity of the Java-Bali grid, PLN could only distribute between 13,305 MW to 15,254 MW. The remaining capacity is used for PLN's own operations. The peak load ranges between 12,000 MW to 13,250 MW. This leaves a minimum reserve of between 145 MW to 1,427 MW.
In order to avoid any power disruption, PLN needs a minimum reserve of 615 MW.
Power demand has been growing by seven percent annually or higher than the growth of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of around 4 percent.
Basuki said by the end of April, fresh power supply was expected to come from the Muara Tawar power plant. It would provide an additional 840 MW.
Next year, additional power supply is expected to come from the coal-fired Cilacap power plant in Central Java which has a capacity of 600 MW.
"The (power supply) condition will deteriorate if we don't get new supply from Cilacap because the existing capacity is barely enough to meet demands," Basuki said.
The Cilacap power plant is one of 26 independent power producers where projects were suspended in 1997.
Last year, the government managed to renegotiate with the independent power producers. Around 14 of them agreed to restart their projects, seven agreed to terminate their projects, including Cilacap power plant. The remaining projects were acquired by PLN and state oil-and-gas firm Pertamina.
The government has received financing from the Bank of China to restart construction of the Cilacap plant.