27 areas in Indonesia are facing power crisis: Official

There are at least 27 areas in Indonesia which have been facing power crisis. This situation can only be resolved through the speeding up of the electricity sector crash program, which aimed at building non-fossil fuel power plants, the Investor Daily Indonesia newspaper reported in its Thursday edition.

Agus Tribusono, director of electricity trade and building at the Directorate General of Energy Utilization and Electricity, said that the 27 areas are located in Southern Sumatra, North and Southeast Sulawesi, North Sumatra, Riau and West Kalimantan provinces.

?The crisis has been occurring because of the government?s inability (to develop more power plants) due to the monetary crisis effects," Agus said during a dialog with electricity consumers and Indonesia Consumers Institute in Jakarta on Wednesday.

According to Agus, the government is committed to gradually resolve the problem through the crash program, which will generate some 20,000 MW electricity to developed by state power company PT PLN and private companies until 2010(*).