Power cuts blamed on deforested green areas
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post/Bandarlampung
Deforested catchment areas around the Batutegi and Way Besai dams, located in Tanggamus and West Lampung regencies, respectively, have greatly aggravated the power crisis in Lampung province, according to activists.
Until recently, both hydro-powered generating stations were operating for fewer than six hours per day due to declining water levels. As a result, Lampung's PT PLN (state-owned electricity company) has had to implement rotating blackouts once every two days.
Deforestation of catchment areas around the Batutegi dam has reached 50 percent, while 20 percent of the brush area surrounding the dam has been damaged due to illegal logging and poor forest management, a consumer activist said on Saturday.
A consumer activist from the Lampung People's Care for Consumers, Dandy Ibrahim, said the Way Besai and Batutegi power stations were only able to operate for three and four hours per day, respectively.
He said the turbines at the Way Besai power station had been in poor condition since being submerged in floodwater two years ago.
"That is one of the reasons for their sluggish performance. But PLN has always tried to cover it up," said Dandy.
Batutegi dam, located in Pulau Panggang subdistrict, Tanggamus, is used to irrigate 66,573 hectares of rice paddy.
In addition to irrigating paddy fields, the dam, built at a cost of Rp 960 billion (US$106.6 million), is able to produce 28 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which has been able to reduce the power deficit in Lampung, South Sumatra and Bengkulu provinces.
The Way Besai power station, with a capacity of 90 MW, can only generate 60 MW of electricity, while the Batutegi power station, which should be able to produce 28 MW, can only produce seven MW of power.
In addition to a lack of rain, the reduced water levels at the dams are also the result of damage to the catchment areas around the dams. As much as 40 percent of the catchment area near Batutegi is in critical condition due to excessive land clearance.
At Way Besai, almost 60 percent of the catchment area has been damaged by illegal land clearance by residents who have cleared away forested areas on the fringes of the South Bukit Barisan National Park to cultivate coffee and pepper.
The manager of the Batutegi dam, Trijono, said the current dry season had caused less water to flow into the dam, only nine cubic meters per second. Meanwhile, the water flowing out to irrigate the 28,000 hectares of rice paddy reaches 15 cubic meters per second.
"We can only release water at the risk of reducing the water level of the dam," he said.
During peak capacity, Lampung, Bengkulu and South Sumatra provinces require 620 MW of power, but only 570.8 MW is available, which means a deficit of 49.2 MW. The total power demand for Lampung province alone is 280 MW.
Sixty percent of the power shortage is covered by PLN's Lampung sector and 40 percent by the Tanjung Enim-Lampung interconnection system. However, the interconnection power lines are prone to interruption because they run through forested areas.
Lampung Forestry Office head Edi Suryadi said that to curb land degradation, his office had offered assistance in the form of vegetation conservation programs in several places near the dams.
Suryadi said overseas and government funding of Rp 138.390 billion was needed to restore the catchment area at the Batutegi dam.