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