Local equipment suppliers cause power inefficiency
JAKARTA (JP): The erratic supply of domestic equipment and engineering services forces the state electricity company, PT PLN, to spend huge amounts to import the goods necessary for its projects.
"Such a situation has caused PLN, which has been assigned to establish new power plants with a total capacity of around 9,500 megawatts (MW) in the next five years, to be inefficient," Rahardi Ramelan, vice chairman of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said at a three-day workshop on energy at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) here yesterday.
Data at the Central Bureau of Statistics indicates that imports of electrical equipment and services reached US$12.16 billion last year, as compared to $11.70 billion in 1992 and $11.63 billion in 1991.
The report said the imports included steel products, platforms, boilers, basic chemicals, copper, aluminum products and electronics equipment.
"If the domestic industry cannot anticipate the demand, PLN will become more inefficient," Rahardi said.
It is time for the country's engineering industry to produce such supporting products, whose raw materials are actually available in Indonesia, he said.
He expressed concern that the Indonesian engineering industry is still functioning as assembler of foreign products, instead of becoming a producer.
To improve the domestic engineering industry, Rahardi proposed that the industry's executives actively promote exchanges of know-how, transfer of technology and improve human resources.
Distribution
Rahardi said that the engineering industry should start now with products for supporting PLN's distribution and transmission networks.
He suggested that the engineering industry assign a team to determine which components, facilities and services should be prepared by the domestic industry.
Kodiat Samadikun, PLN's director for development, said that PLN welcomes the establishment of such a team, which will in turn reduce PLN's reliance on imports of power facilities.
"Thus far, contractors are required to procure no less than 25 percent of all components from domestic suppliers," he told The Jakarta Post after presenting his paper at yesterday's workshop.
Besides the generation plants, PLN also plans to set up 25,938 kilometers of transmission facilities, including main stations with a total capacity of 57,047 megavolt amperes (MVA), 277,614 kilometers of middle-high voltage cables and distribution sub- stations with a total capacity of 45,203 MVA. (fhp)