Outages worry people in West Sumatra, Riau

Kasparman, The Jakarta Post, Padang

Power blackouts in West Sumatra and Riau provinces have been causing anxiety among the public, particularly those involved in small and medium businesses.

Chairman of the Indonesian Consumers' Foundation in Padang, Abdul Kadir Usman, noted that his organization had expressed its concern over the blackouts, saying they would inflict losses on local residents.

"The state-owned electricity company PLN was ignoring its customers' rights," he said.

PLN always took action against customers who failed to comply with its regulations. But when it failed to fulfill its obligations, the customers just had to accept it without being able to take action against the state firm.

PLN fined customers who failed to pay their electricity bills on time every month, and would cut off the power if they failed to pay their bills for two consecutive months. The company had also raised its electricity charges recently but without improving the service it provided.

PLN said that the rotating power cuts were caused by a decrease in the water volume passing through its hydro plants at Maninjau and Singkarak lakes, as well as the Koto Panjang reservoir.

It said that this was the result of lower rainfall in the areas affected and environmental damage to their water catchment areas due to rampant logging.

But Abdul said that PLN should find other solutions to the problem of power blackouts so that it would not inflict further losses on the public.

"PLN could carry out, for example, cloud seeding to increase the water volumes to the hydro plants," he said.

Marlis, the head of the small and medium enterprise section of West Sumatra's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the power blackouts had inflicted heavy losses on small and medium enterprises in the province.

He cited tailoring businesses in Pariaman, chicken rearing in Payakumbuh, ice makers, and photocopy and telecommunications stalls in several regencies.

The power blackouts had also affected media publications in Padang, he complained.

Marlis said that if PLN could not use the three hydro plants to generate enough electricity then it should use diesel generators and the steam power plant in Sijantang.

Reliable sources said that after PLN started operating the three hydro plants, it moved its diesel generating equipment to Java and Batam islands.

PLN spokesman Muhamad Zaini said that PLN had transferred the equipment to Java and Batam because it believed that the three hydro plants could fulfill power demand in the provinces concerned.

He said that due to the electricity shortfall, the company was planning to return the diesel generating equipment from Batam to the province.

"We'll start using the diesel equipment again, but we will possibly operate it from Riau province," he said.

He admitted that water volumes for the three hydro plants in Maninjau and Singkarak lakes, and Koto Panjang reservoir were now critical. The plants were not able to generate enough electricity due to the low water levels and sedimentation.