PLN in dark over blackouts

Ika Krismantari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State power firm PT PLN said Thursday it could not guarantee when the rotating blackouts in Java and parts of Bali would end as bad weather continued to disrupt coal supplies to its power plants.

However, PLN transmission director Herman Darnel Ibrahim said it would switch to oil-based fuel to replace coal, as coal transporting ships could not dock due to big waves caused by cyclone Nicholas south of Bali.

"We hope that the oil supply can save our operation at the moment, but we must keep our budget in check as oil is more expensive than coal," Herman told The Jakarta Post.

Pertamina senior vice president for marketing Hanung Budya said the state oil and gas firm increased the oil supply for PLN power plants by an average 50 percent in February to anticipate the lack of supply for some PLN generators.

With the additional fuel supply from Pertamina, Herman said the power deficit on Friday would be less than the 653 megawatts earlier estimated by the company.

Particularly on weekends, PLN said there would be no blackouts as industries and offices turned off electricity consumption.

With bad weather forecast to continue through April, PLN has been asking customers, both households and industries, to reduce consumption by at least 10 percent, especially during the peak load time of 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

"Thanks to consumer participation, we were able to reduce the power deficit on Wednesday night by 300 MW, so we only suffered a deficit of 700 MW," PLN acting director for power and generation Fahmi Mochtar said.

He also called on industries to use generators rather than electricity from PLN to lessen the power firm's burden.

Due to disruptions to its fuel supply, PLN has instituted rolling blackout of three to four hours since Monday in several parts of Jakarta.

Fahmi said PLN was also upgrading its fuel supply management to minimize disruption in the event of future shipment delays.

PLN also urged the government to allow companies to use foreign-flagged ships to transport its coal instead of only local ships as required by the shipping law.

Currently, PLN only uses nine ships with a capacity of 60,000 tons each. Fahmi says the company should have 15 vessels to supply all of its power plants in Java and Bali.

Java and Bali power plants have a total capacity of about 18,000 MW and serve 22 million consumers.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government was looking for a way PLN could get additional gas supplies to secure its power supply.

He wants PLN to build a liquefied natural gas receiving terminal in Java so it can receive gas supplies from other places.

The minister has urged the Tangguh gas plant in Papua to deliver gas from its third and fourth processing units to PLN and other domestic industries.