Another power blackout may hit South and Southeast Sulawesi

Another power blackout may hit many parts of South and Southeast Sulawesi if no immediate measure is taken to speed up the shipment of diesel oil supply to the Suppa diesel power plant in the Pinrang regency, Kompas reported on Saturday.

General Manager of state-owned electriciyt firm PLN for South and Southest Sulawesi, Arifuddin Nurdin, said on Friday that the existing oil stock for the power plant would be enough only to meet the oil need for this week's operation.

The sharp increase in the oil prices in the international market has forced Pertamina to reduce its diesel oil supply to industrial users. The reduction in the oil supply has affected many companies including PLN which still operates a number of diesel power plants.

"If the power plant could not be operated, the power supply for Southeast and South Sulawesi would suffer a deficit of 90 MW. It means that at least 30 percent of the areas in the two provinces will be have no electricity," he added.

According to Ariffuddin, the power supply in the two provinces has suffered a deficit of about 40 MW. The power supply deficit will worsen if the Suppa power plant stops its operation.

Power blackout hit Jakarta, and other cities in Java on Thursday for almost 7 hours due to a failure in PLN's Java and Bali power interconnection grid. (*)