Electricity Supply Reduced
Monday, 11 September, 2006 | 17:08 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: PT PLN (Persero), the state electricity company, has reduced its electricity supply for the Java-Bali system to 300 megawatts, or half of its initial capacity.

The reason for this is that oil usage during the first half of this year was already 56 percent of the stipulated quota of around 9.2 million kilo liters that the government stipulated.

Muljo Adji, the General Manager of Provisioning and Center for Java and Bali Load Controller, has said that electricity supply is being reduced to alleviate the usage of oil-based fuels.

“Instead of blacking out customers' electricity, we have reduced the supply as of late August of this year,” he said today (11/9) in Jakarta.

He explained that the price of oil-based fuels have sharply increased compared to that stipulated in the Working Plan and Company's Budget (RKAP) of PLN of 2006 of Rp5,000 per liter.

The price has now reached Rp6,300.

In fact, every time the price increases by Rp100 per liter, PLN faces additional costs of Rp640 million.

“The additional cost may reach more than Rp7 trillion, despite the fact that we have a limited amount of funds,” he said.

Muljo went on to say that the reduction is quite risky especially when there is any damage to one of PLN’s electricity generating plants.

There may be blackouts as the electricity supply is commonly set at 600 MW.

This is the highest capacity of generating plant that PLN owns.
The reduction, he added, is estimated to last until the end of the year.

The reason is that next year, three non oil-based generating plants will be fully operational.

They include the Cilegon Gas and Steam-Powered Generating Plant, the Cilacap Steam-Powered Generating Plant, and the Tanjung Jati B Steam-Powered Generating Plant.

Muhammad Fasabeni