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.