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.