Makassar feel the pinch of routine blackouts

Makassar feel the pinch of routine blackouts

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post/Makassar

As electricity blackouts become increasingly routine, residents
of Makassar have had their lives and businesses disrupted.

Wati, a dressmaker who runs a small business in Jalan Kumala
in Makassar, relied on electricity to operate her four sewing
machines. "When the blackouts take place during the day we can
still work manually. But if it's at night there's not much we can
do," she said on Tuesday.

"A dress that is normally finished in a day or two, now takes
four days to finish. I hope the government can find another way
to deal with this problem. We're only simple people who rely on
the money from making dresses," Wati said.

Another resident, Awaluddin, who runs an Internet kiosk in
Jalan Landak, said the regular blackouts were causing great
losses to his business, especially when they took place during
busy hours in the afternoon.

"The blackouts usually happen in the afternoon or at night,
usually for four hours. But the worst is when they happens in the
afternoon, like at 2 p.m. or 4 p.m. We might suffer 30 percent
losses in income," Awaluddin said.

Due to the blackouts his income has been drastically reduced
from the usual Rp 500,000 a day. He feared the continual
blackouts would also cause damage to his computers.

For housewife Eny, who lives in Jalan Cendrawasih, the
blackouts means no clean water since she cannot use her water
pump.

"These blackouts are causing so much trouble. Our electronic
appliances can't be used, there's no clean water and my children
are afraid of the dark. If I light up candles, I'm afraid it
might cause fires," Eny said.

The blackouts are taking place in rotation, usually at peak
hours. At times, they occur twice a day. In some locations, such
as residential complexes, street lamps have been turned off. Only
public facilities like offices and hospitals are still supplied
with electricity.

State electricity firm PT PLN in Makassar, overseeing south
and southeast Sulawesi, cannot estimate how long the crisis will
last.

The company's general manager Arifuddin Nurdin said on Monday
that the power blackouts that have been occurring for the past
week were the result of a drastic drop in water levels at the
Bakaru hydropower station in Pinrang regency, due to a prolonged
dry season.

"The water level at the Bakaru power station has drastically
dropped since June and can no longer propel the turbines. The
required water level is 40 meters, and at the moment it's below
25 meters. This has resulted in a reduced supply of power from
the station," said Arifuddin.

He said that to be able to propel the turbines, workers in
Bakaru have had to hold back water until it reached the normal
level. An average of four hours is required to replenish water up
to the required level. The power generators are automatically
shut down during this period, thus blackouts are inevitable.

The turbines, he said, have a running capacity of only two
hours, meaning power will only be supplied for two hours and
blackouts will last for four hours.

For these reasons, Arifuddin said PLN was unable to predict
the duration of the power crisis. The dry season, which usually
occurs from October to December in that region, had started
earlier than expected, and it was estimated that it would end
later than usual.

"It's difficult to predict how long it will take (to restore
power) because it's caused by nature. Hopefully, the rainy season
will come soon," he said.

The installed capacity of the four power stations in South
Sulawesi is 543 MW, while the peak load capacity is only 399 MW,
still leaving a theoretical power surplus. But, due to setbacks
at the Bakaru station, power shortages still prevail in the
province.

The four power stations owned by PLN are the Bakaru and Suppa
hydropower stations, the Tello steam-powered station, and the
Sengkang gas-powered station.

However, due to the interruptions at Bakaru, the biggest power
station in the province, power supplies throughout the province
have been disrupted.

He said there were only two ways of overcoming the power
crisis in South Sulawesi; by conserving energy, and by the use of
power generators. However, both ways had their limitations.

Since the start of the crisis, PLN had encouraged the public
to conserve energy by at least 50 Watts per customer, but this
call was not heeded.

He said if the public had followed PLN's calls to save energy,
then around 50 Megawatts could have been saved from the 1.3
million customers in the area.

According to Arifuddin, his office has submitted a proposal to
the South Sulawesi governor to lease 20 MW generator sets. But
according to the governor, permission must first be obtained from
the State Audit Agency (BPK) and it must go through an open
tender, which will take at least three months.

"For the time being, we have no other choice but to appeal to
the public to conserve energy. We have urged a number of major
clients to save energy during peak hours, but this has not helped
much," said Arifuddin.