PLN says fire not from substations

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State-owned electric company PLN rejected on Tuesday the accusation that the Tanah Abang fire was caused by a short circuit in one of its four substations in the market, saying that the substations were protected by safety devices.

Winayu Siswanto, Manager of PLN's Gambir Network Management Unit, said the safety devices would stop the electricity supply to the substations in the case of a short circuit.

"The safety devices would have automatically shut down the electricity supply, if there was a short circuit in one of the substations," he said.

"When we received a report of the fire at 12:45 p.m., the electricity supply was still normal, but the supply was then shut down manually."

If the fire was caused by a short circuit, there should have been no electricity being supplied at the outset of the fire, he added.

Winayu was speaking at a hearing with the City Council Commission B, which oversees economic affairs.

While it was believed that a short circuit had played a crucial role in the fire, the police have yet to complete their investigation and uncover the cause of the fire.

Emphasizing that the electricity supply was still normal 30 minutes after the fire had started, Winayu said that there was only a very slim chance that the fire had been caused by a short- circuiting substation.

If the safety device had failed entirely, said Winayu, the four substations would have all exploded simultaneously.

"The market technician, Sariman, reacted quickly by checking a substation near him when the fire started, and shut it down by removing the fuses," said Winayu.

"The fuses were still intact, indicating that a short circuit had not occurred. Sariman, however, failed to reach other substations as smoke quickly engulfed the market".

PLN technicians visited the scene of the fire to probe all possibilities, but poor security hampered their efforts.

"We can determine whether the fire was caused by a short circuit or the other way around. A fire can destroy the cable's insulation layers, causing a short circuit.

"Scavengers, however, pillaged the fuses as well as cut all the cables after the fire, so we cannot deduce anything," he added.

Separately, Tulus Abadi of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said that PLN could not make such a one-sided statement defending its own facilities without public involvement to back up its claims.

"PLN has to allow independent auditors and the police to assess its substations in Tanah Abang Market as to whether or not they are in good conditions.

"Public involvement is also important, as PLN's management admitted last year that 70 percent of its network was already in poor condition."

Tulus also said that a study showed electrical problems to have been involved in 85 percent of fire cases.