PLN urged to be cautious in solving power crisis

PLN urged to be cautious in solving power crisis

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

The Lampung provincial legislative council warned the state-owned
electricity company PT PLN against cutting the power supply to
some 30,000 electric customers, who were protesting poor PLN
service by not paying their bills, saying such a unilateral
action could cause widespread chaos in the province.

The legislature's Commission E on mining and energy called on
the local branch of PLN to seek a win-win solution to the power
crisis that has affected the province over the last nine months,
in which PLN has had to embark on a program of revolving
blackouts since losing some of its power generating capacity.

"The provincial legislature has delivered a letter to the
chief of the local PLN office requesting a detailed report on the
power crisis, including local people's protests of the company's
poor service to the public," Abdul Hakim, the commission's
chairman, told The Jakarta Post here on Tuesday.

He conceded that the revolving blackouts and resulting
protests, had created a serious dilemma both to PLN and the
public following damage to several powere generating facilities
in the province.

"PLN cannot repair the power plants if the public fails to pay
their electric bills to PLN while the public has been frustrated
by the frequent blackouts over the last nine months. This is why
PLN should seek win-win solution to negate any problems resulting
from the power crisis," he said.

Hakim however, said the legislative council could not order
PLN to refrain from cutting power to the protesting customers as
long as the action was taken in accordance with the law.

PLN has threatened to turn off the electricity of some 30,000
homeowners who stopped paying their bills three months ago. The
rotating blackouts became more frequent in September and many
have reported damage to electronic goods as a result of the
unreliable and unstable voltage.

The company increased the blackouts to once every second day
as of September 2002, from once every third day between January
and August this year following damage to a number of power
stations and generators in the province as well as neighboring
South Sumatra province.

Lampung province has 32 power generating stations with a total
capacity of 275,166 megawatts (MW) a day while the demand for
power at peak hours currently averages over 276,000 MW.

Meanwhile, P. Samosir, chief of the PLN branch in
Tanjungkarang, insisted that PLN would go ahead with its plan to
cut the electricity completely from the protesters, and saying it
was ready to face any lawsuit from the protesters or non-
governmental organizations.

"We have lost all tolerance as the people have been given
three months to pay their bills. A great number of staff have
been deployed to cut off their power.

"We are all know that the province is facing a serious power
crisis. PLN has been overburdened by the customers' arrears. We
will be even more burdened by this crisis if they don't start
paying their bills," he said.

Subradayani Mursalim, chairman of the local office of the
Indonesian Consumers Agency (YLKI), threatened that it would file
a class action lawsuit against PLN should the latter cut the
power supply.

"Homeowners have clear reasons for not paying their bills.
They would never have done it if PLN could do its job and provide
better service to the public," he said.