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.