PLN won't pay for blackout

Leony Aurora and Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

State power firm PT PLN said on Friday it would not pay compensation for the massive blackout that affected much of Java on Thursday.

The power cut, which began at 10:23 a.m. on Thursday and was not fully resolved until some 11 hours later, did not affect PLN's standard of service, president director Eddie Widiono said.

"We see no legal basis for reducing customers' bills (next month)," he said.

PLN applies different standards of service for each area. In Jakarta, the standard is no more than seven power disruptions or cumulative blackouts of longer than 24 hours in a month, said Eddie.

"If (the disruptions) exceed the standard, we will compensate customers," he said.

Electricity in Jakarta and Banten went out completely on Thursday because a glitch in the interconnection system between Saguling and Cilegon in West Java caused two major power plants -- Suralaya in West Java and Paiton in East Java -- to stop operating, reducing the power supply by 4,000 megawatts (MW). Parts of the other provinces in Java were also affected by the power cut.

The blackout caused massive traffic jams, brought electric commuter trains to a standstill, forced hospitals to delay surgeries and disrupted work at businesses without back-up generators. Fish died at aquarium shops and Internet kiosks lost hundreds of millions of rupiah in potential revenue.

The textile industry in Greater Jakarta is estimated to have suffered about Rp 55 billion (US$5.5 million) in losses, with more losses being suffered by the automotive supporting industries.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla urged PLN to take responsibility for the blackout by compensating customers.

"We have no plans at this time to replace the management (of PLN)," said Kalla after Friday prayers. "(However), they have to take responsibility for the problem by paying compensation for the damage caused by the blackout, as they previously promised," he said.

Indonesian Consumers Foundation chairwoman Indah Suksmaningsih questioned whether PLN tracked the power cuts that occurred over the course of each month, to determine if the company was living up to its service standards.

"Dissatisfied customers can file a class action suit under Law No. 8/1999 on consumer protection," she said. However, she added, the question was whether customers were willing to spend the time and energy necessary to bring the matter to court.

As of Friday, PLN had not discovered the cause of the fault in the interconnection system. Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government had established a special team to investigate the power disruption.

The team, led by director general of electricity and energy Yogo Pratomo, includes representatives of PLN, the National Intelligence Agency, the police and the Bandung Institute of Technology.

"They will have three months to determine the cause of the power cut," said Purnomo.

PLN has been struggling to secure a sufficient power supply to meet growing demand in the country. A lack of investment in the sector since the 1997 monetary crisis has left the system vulnerable to disruptions.

Last week, PLN announced a possible 250 MW shortage in parts of Java during the peak hours of between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. because of repairs being done at one 600 MW unit of the Suralaya power plant.

;JP;REN; ANPAf..r.. Power-Purnomo-snake Purnomo says snake, kite can cause blackout JP/1/SIDEBAR

It takes a snake to disrupt power

It does not take a genius or a terrorist to disrupt power in Java and Bali -- the country's economic backbone. All that is needed is a snake or a kite to cause chaos on the two densely populated islands.

Because of the extreme vulnerability of the 500-kilovolt power network stretching across the two islands, a snake hanging on the transmission wires can cause a blackout across large areas, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.

"Power transmission will not return to normal until the snake has been pulled from the wires. That is just an example to show how vulnerable our power transmission is," he said after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Friday.

Purnomo said a major cause of this vulnerability was the uncoated transmission wires that were unable to prevent disruptions caused by external objects. In addition to snakes, Purnomo has pointed to kites as another danger to the power network.

"For the past 15 years there have been disruptions in the transmission of power, with most of these problems triggered by external factors," he said. -- JP