Riau meets PLN heads over power crisis

Puji Santoso, The Jakarta Post/Pekanbaru

Riau Governor Rusli Zainal met top executives of state-owned electricity company PT PLN on Friday night in Jakarta, hoping that the company would help it end the province's electricity crisis. During the meeting, PT PLN's president director Eddy Widiono told the Riau governor that the company would help the provincial administration find investors to fund the construction of Teluk Lembu gas-powered power plant, which would boost the province's power supply.

The power company also promised that it would buy electricity supplied by the Teluk Lembu power plant, said Eddy, as quoted as by Riau administration spokesman Zulkarnain on Saturday.

However, Zulkarnain said that the two parties had not reached an agreement on how much the power supply would cost.

"The price will be decided upon in the near future, at our next meeting," said Zulkarnain, who was also at the two-hour meeting held at the Crystal Restaurant in the BNI 46 Building on Jl. Sudirman.

According to the master plan of the Teluk Lembu power plant, it will be built in two stages. In the first stage, the contractor appointed by the provincial government will build a turbine with an output capacity of 20 Megawatts. In the second stage, the contractor will build two turbines with a combined output capacity of 50 Megawatts.

"The governor expressed his hope after the meeting that the electricity crisis in Riau would end with the construction of the power plant," said Zulkarnain.

The meeting was held in response to the power crisis in the province in June and July. Power was shut down by rotation in the three provinces, including Riau, for a month, after the water debit in several reservoirs in the provinces -- used by several power plants here to generate electricity -- dropped due to the dry season. The power cuts lasted for between three and six hours a day in each province, and sometimes between six and 10 hours a day.