Power crisis to hit N. Barito until July

Power crisis to hit N. Barito until July

MUARA TEWEH, Central Kalimantan: Almost 8,000 people in three districts in North Barito regency, Central Kalimantan, will have to go without electricity by turns until the end of July 2003 due to a power shortage.

Mochtar Santoso, head of the office of state electricity company PT PLN in Muara Teweh, North Barito, said on Tuesday the power cut had to be extended from mid-May as originally scheduled pending the arrival of generator components.

With the power cuts, which also disturbs the regency drinking water supply, citizens in the affected areas are without electricity every three days, from afternoon until night.

Power generators in the regency were overhauled due to some damage on April 13 and three of their components have to be imported directly from Japan, making them unable to operate at full capacity during peak load hours.

According to Santoso, Muara Teweh alone has 6,530 PLN subscribers, followed by Lahei district with 565 subscribers and Teweh Tengah district with over 630 subscribers. --Antara