Riau meets PLN heads over power crisis

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.