Restraint By Big Consumers Eases Need for Indonesia Power Cuts

Text of report in English by influential Indonesian newspaper The Jakarta Post English-language website on 27 July

[by Agnes Winarti]

Jakarta, Saturday 26 July: Thanks to big customers who reduced their electricity consumption in the past two weeks, state electricity utility PT PLN did not impose planned rotating blackouts on Jakarta and Tangerang, an official said Friday.

“We only imposed a blackout on the first day, 11 July, when we had to drop the daytime load by 120 megawatt (MW),” PLN Jakarta and Tangerang distribution manager Widodo Budi Nugroho told The Jakarta Post.

Budi said after announcing the rotating blackout plan that large customers including industry, shopping centres and office buildings in business and commercial districts showed willingness to reduce consumption by making average energy savings of 60 to 120 MW per day over the following days.

“Observing this energy saving, we cancelled our planned blackouts,” said Budi, adding that minor blackouts during the two weeks period were due to local problems in specific areas. He said there was an improving awareness among large customers of the need to reduce electricity consumption, in terms of the use of lights, air conditioners and elevators. “But it is not yet consistent.”

Chief executive officer of upscale mall Senayan City in South Jakarta, Handaka Santoso, said during the planned blackout he had ordered air-conditioning temperatures to be maintained at 25 degrees Celsius. “We also reduced the number of locations with lights on, as part of the commitment of the Indonesian Shopping Centre Association,” he said.

“Although currently we have only identified the electricity savings of our large customers, I believe our household customers are also making an effort to reduce energy use,” Budi said. He said PLN had been forced to schedule the rotating blackouts because of a two-week disruption of gas supply at two power stations – the 900 MW plant in Tanjung Priok and the 750 MW plant in Muara Karang.

The two power stations receive their gas from multinational energy giant BP, which suspended gas supplies because of routine maintenance of its central flow station, located off West Java.

Budi said Muara Karang plant experienced an operating capacity deficit between 100 and 150 MW during the maintenance period.

Budi said the plants had now returned to their normal operations. He could not guarantee that the plants would always operate within their normal capacity in the future. “Only God can guarantee that,” he said.

Budi expressed his hope that customers would keep supporting PLN and reducing their daily electricity consumption, despite the resumption of normal gas supply.

Besides targeting consumption reduction among large customers, Budi said PLN would also urge government offices to participate in reducing their consumption by 20 per cent.

PLN Jakarta and Tangerang serves (?3,600) large customers, and 3.11 million household customers.

PLN’s large customers, with above 200 kilovolt ampere (KVA) of installed capacity, contribute 46 per cent of the firm’s revenue, while household customers contribute 31 per cent of revenue.

Originally published by The Jakarta Post website, Jakarta, in English 27 Jul 08.

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