Electricity Crisis to Last Until 2009
Monday, 25 February, 2008 | 15:06 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: PT PLN (the State Electricity Company) is predicting that Indonesia will experience an electricity crisis up until next year.

The state-owned company, according to Muljo Adji, PLN's Manager of Load and Distribution Center, is currently under much pressure.

Muljo explained that when electric subsidy was cut back by around Rp10 trillion, electricity consumption (load) growth instead increased.

This was despite, “Any increase in the electricity procurement capacity still being limited,” he said when contacted by Tempo.

Muljo described that the realization of last year's electricity load growth had already reached 6.2 percent.
In order to deal with this growth, PLN is unable to increase this year's electric capacity.

In the company's work budget plan, PLN had only targeted the load growth to be five percent, with fuel demand at around nine million kiloliters.

“That alone takes around Rp69 trillion in fuel subsidies,” said Muljo.

In the draft Revised 2008 State Budget, the government only allocated subsidies of Rp54.9 trillion.

“With only this amount of subsidies, it's difficult to meet the load growth,” he said.

According to Fabby Tumiwa, an electricity observer, the electricity crisis will instead last until 2010.

This Director of the Institute for Essential Service Reform—a non-governmental organization (NGO) that oversees the electricity sector--also estimated that the frequency of blackouts will be higher during the next three years.

The cause, she said, was that between 2008 and 2010 there will not be any additional electricity capacity.

The Java-Bali electricity system's power is now around 15,000 megawatts, while the electricity load peak has reached 16,251 MW, as occurred on Wednesday last week (20/2).

According to Fabby, this means that every time the load exceeds the capacity, PLN experiences an electricity deficit with the result that blackouts are possible.
“My prediction is blackout risks will increase this year,” Fabby told Tempo.

Muljo confirmed that fuel use for electricity generating plants is very large, mainly because PLN is still experiencing difficulties in obtaining gas supplies.

This year, the only additional electricity power procurement is 60 MW from the geothermal-powered electricity generating plant (PLTP) in Kamojang, West Java.

ANNE L HANDAYANI | NIEKE INDRIETTA