Power supplies mostly return to normal

Power supplies mostly return to normal

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Power supply returned to normal in most parts of Greater Jakarta
on Saturday after hours of blackout on Thursday night and Friday
as state electricity firm PT PLN worked hard to bring things
under control.

There were still power outages in certain areas. However, PT
PLN said it would stick to existing regulations in case a class
action suit is filed against the company.

"Our operation has returned to normal although a small number
of customers in Tangerang are still experiencing a power outage
due to problems with the circuit breaker and voltage regulator,"
PLN's president Eddie Widiono told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

"But our technicians have been working since early morning to
fix the problem. Most of the affected customers were factories
which had their day off on Saturday."

Transmission problems almost caused a total blackout in
Jakarta and the outlying areas of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi on
Thursday night. The blackout was caused by problems between the
Suralaya coal-fired power plant in Banten and the Cibinong relay
station in West Java.

On Friday, the problem was somewhere between the Cibinong
relay station and the Saguling hydro power plant in West Java.

"You can say the Cibinong relay station and also the station
in Gandul, south of Jakarta, are the entry points for power
supply to Jakarta," said Eddie.

Meanwhile, PLN's corporate secretary Muljo Adji AG told the
Post that the company respected the public's right to file a
class action suit.

"We will explain what our problems are to the public. That
there are still risks of disruption," he said over the phone.

"But we don't have any plan to provide compensation for the
losses caused by the blackouts. We will just stick to the
existing regulations."

The newly endorsed Power Law stipulates that customers can
only get compensation if a blackout occurs for three consecutive
days.

Earlier on Friday, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI)
through its legal division head, Tulus Abadi, urged residents to
file a class action suit against PLN as allowed by the 1999
Customer Protection Law.

There are some 4.5 million customers in the Greater Jakarta
area.

Many PLN customers complain that the company cuts power off
instantly if customers fail to pay their bills on time while the
company itself has not improved its service.

"All PLN can do is apologize," is a common remark from
customers.

Muljo said that the company was just doing its job according
to the regulations.

"There are so many problems in managing electricity from
generation to transmission. We do our best to ensure a safe
supply," he said.

"But sometimes we just can't prevent problems due to natural
causes."

Muljo admitted there were possibilities that similar problems
could occur in the future but PLN would improve its routine
maintenance to prevent them.

PLN boasts that its Java-Bali interconnected power grid will
be able to overcome such problems.

Eddie said, however, PLN still had to finish the construction
of its southern Java transmission lines.

"So far we only have transmission lines on Java's northern
coastline. Once the southern line is finished, we can
automatically switch from one to the other if there is any
problem," he said.

"The majority of our power plants are located in the eastern
part of Java. Paiton power plant, for example, sends 1,500
megawatts of electricity daily to Jakarta."

Completion of the southern transmission lines would improve
PLN's power reliability and reserves, according to Eddie.

Currently, the transmission from Paiton has reached Kendal,
Central Java. There are another 400 kilometers of transmission
lines to be completed by mid 2004 connecting Kendal with
Tasikmalaya and Depok in West Java to complete the southern
transmission lines.