Jakarta Globe
Children play in the nearly-dry catchment basin at the Bakaru hydroelectric plant in South Sulawesi. The plant has been hit by a severe water shortage, contributing to an energy crisis throughout the area. (Photo: Sahrul Manda Tikupadang, Antara)
Sulawesi Power Crisis Sparks Public Outrage
Makassar. Malfunctioning power stations have caused days of large-scale rotating blackouts in what is being called the worst power crisis in the history of Sulawesi.
The crisis has impacted several industries in the region and has led to a public outcry, an official from the Association of Young Indonesian Entrepreneurs (Hipmi) said during a meeting organized by the group and state-run power utility PLN on Thursday in the South Sulawesi capital.
Ridwan Djabir said industries in the region were cutting production, while operational costs were skyrocketing.
“Take the printing industry, which fails to meet deadlines without electricity. Not to mention so many other industries. It is unacceptable,” he said.
Ridwan noted that South Sulawesi was suffering massive losses due to the ongoing power crisis, and that the PLN’s short-term solution to send power generators was insufficient.
He said residents who ran home businesses were being badly affected by the crisis, but the hardest hit were small businesses operating across the region that were unlikely to have their own generators.
PLN was represented at the discussion by Haryanto, its regional general manager for South, West and Southeast Sulawesi. He blamed the crisis on problems at two of PLN’s primary power stations, which had caused a power deficit of 130 megawatts.
Drought has left the 63-megawatt Bakaru hydroelectric power plant barely operational due to a drastic drop in the water flow rate. The plant needs a water flow rate of 45 cubic meters per second for its turbines to move.
Haryanto said the other primary power station, the Sengkang gas-fired plant, suffered damage in early October and would not become fully operational again until December. He did not elaborate on the nature of the damage.
Sengkang’s diesel-fueled power generator is divided into two sectors, with an interconnected capacity of 60 megawatts.
Haryanto said PLN was making every effort to deal with the power deficit, including renting generators.
“The company is sending for 63-megawatt generators, which will be shipped from Aceh, Riau, North Sumatra, Central Java and West Sulawesi,” he said. “They will be used until repairs are completed on the Sengkang power plant and favorable weather conditions arrive in Bakaru.”
Power outages in South and West Sulawesi have taken place at an average of three times per day, with each outage lasting between two and four hours.
PLN has warned that many of its power plants and its network are aging and in need of massive investment to be maintained and expand, but the state company clearly failed to anticipate the breakdowns in South Sulawesi.
Meanwhile, students are continuing to organize protest rallies over the power cuts in Makassar.
“For PLN to blame natural phenomena and damage to a facility is classic. Droughts happen every year. Damage to facilities, on the other hand, shows that PLN has been using substandard equipment,” said one demonstrator, Maulana.
During Thursday’s meeting, Salama Manjang, chairman of the Indonesian Association for Electrical Engineers, said it would be impossible to solve the crisis immediately because PLN simply did not have sufficient capacity. He said even if the company rented generators, it could not keep up with the demands of a growing economy.
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