PLN to disconnect electricty power of 24,453 households in Cirebon
PLN to disconnect electricty power of 24,453 households in Cirebon
Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon
State electricity company PT PLN in Cirebon plans to disconnect
the power of 24,453 households that have refused to pay their
bills for three consecutive months in protest against rotating
blackouts.
"We will cut off their power this week if they fail to settle
their accounts," Zaenal Abidin, PLN's marketing and business
manager, announced over the weekend.
He claimed that PLN had suffered Rp 2.1 billion (US$2.47
million) in losses due to the delinquent customers.
"We are forced to take such a measure, otherwise we would
suffer more financial losses," Zaenal argued.
The company also complained that 83,000 customers paid their
bills late over the last three months which amounts to Rp 7.2
billion.
"The situation is not conducive for us. We need timely
payments to cover our expensive operational costs," Zaenal said.
PT PLN Cirebon has also suffered Rp 11 billion in financial
losses due to the loss of 16.4 percent of power for consumers in
the last three months.
The loss is due to, among other things, corrupt officials who
manipulate customers' power usage records at either the
customers' residences or at PLN offices.
Zaenal said that PT PLN had decided to hire students of
religious boarding schools in West Java to accompany its
officials to check customers' meters, in a bid to minimize
leakages in the company.
"The students will be hired to oversee the officers. We
expect to see no more manipulation and collusion between officers
and customers," he said, adding that the students would be
trained for the job.
Zaenal did not say how many students would be hired, but said
that they would be deployed to cover 790,701 customers in the
regency.
Last month, the power to 30,000 PLN customers in Central
Lampung, East Lampung, Way Kanan and Metro was disconnected for
nonpayment. The customers were also protesting rotating blackouts
and the resulting damage to appliances.
The company said it was forced to introduce rotating blackouts
because of a reduced power supply from hydropower plants due to
the severe drought.
The PLN Lampung office, which has been forced to buy 12
megawatts of power per month from a private shrimp breeding
company in South Sumatra, claimed that it had been running short
of power to meet the sharply increasing demand in the province.