PLN urges masses to conserve energy

Riza Mulyadi, Antara/Padang

Many people have blamed nature for the prolonged electricity crisis in West Sumatra. This is a sensible conclusion.

A drop in rainfall in the province has inevitably reduced water levels in lakes Singkarak and Maninjau, as well as Batang Agam River. This in turn has meant that turbines at some hydroelectric power stations in the province have been unable to operate at maximum capacity.

According to the state electricity company (PLN)'s West Sumatra marketing and customer service director, Sunggu Anwar Aritonang, one of the solutions to alleviate the power crisis would be to construct new power stations. But for the time being, finding investors for the power sector is not easy.

"It's not a light task to find an investor during a difficult situation like this, even though Electricity Law No. 20/2002 has given a bigger stake to those investing in power stations," he said during a seminar in Padang on Wednesday on the electricity crisis.

Aritonang said the best solution to ease the power crisis at the moment was to encourage energy conservation. Customers in West Sumatra and Riau provinces are being urged to save up to 50 watts of electricity per day to avoid the periodic blackouts that have hit the two provinces over the past several months.

There are 2.9 million household PLN customers in West Sumatra and Riau. If each household conserves at least 50 watts of power a month, that would add up to 144.4 MW.

With this amount of conserved power, periodic blackouts could be reduced in both provinces.

Aritonang is aware that many people think energy conservation is outdates, but he believes it is still relevant.

"Besides being hampered by natural conditions and a shortage of energy to feed the stations, we are also restricted by a lack of funds to build new power stations. So, conserving energy should be considered," he said.

One of the efforts being made at the moment is to use a cross- subsidy between southern Sumatra, West Sumatra and Riau, through an interconnection transmission system. However, this has yet to overcome the periodic power cuts in West Sumatra and Riau provinces, particularly during peak periods. The system has only been able to reduce the length of the blackouts.

Power failures seldom occur in the daytime in West Sumatra, as the province gets an average of 115 MW of electricity from southern Sumatra, while it only receives 30 MW at night, especially during the peak period from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

West Sumatra PLN general manager Sudirman said the province could manage without receiving power from other sources by operating its power stations at full power.

But if that was done, it would have a negative effect on the environment, as well as raising the possibility of a prolonged power crisis.

"So we have chosen to impose periodic blackouts," said Sudirman.

The periodic blackouts being imposed at the moment, according to Sudirman, are aimed at preserving the environment. As an example, the Singkarak hydropower station has reduced its capacity during the dry season in order to preserve the balance at the province's biggest lake.

According to Sudirman, if PLN operated the Singkarak power station without interval, the impact would be to deplete the water volume of the lake, which would result in its silting up and damaging the lake's biodiversity.

The head of the West Sumatra Mines and Energy Office, Bambang Istijono, said the construction of new power stations would be necessary in the long run because West Sumatra would inevitably face power shortages throughout the year, not only during the dry season, starting from 2007.

According to him, new power stations must be constructed because West Sumatra's power demand by 2010 is expected to reach 496.6 MW, which will increase to 865.4 MW by 2020.