Electricity crisis continues in Riau and West Sumatra

The electricity crisis in West Sumatra and Riau continue despite the fact that rains have started to fall in most part of the two provinces, Kompas daily reported on Thursday."

All the three hydropower plants in West Sumatra are still unable to operate at their full capacity because the water levels are still too low," said Muhammad Rusli, a senior executive of the Padang branch of state owned electricity company PLN.

He said that although there had been much rains during the past several days, the water levels of the lakes were still too low to enable the three hydropower plants PLTA Singakarak (175 MW), PLTA Maninjau (68 MW) and PLTA Kotopanjang (114 MW) to run full steam.

The three power plants are only able to provide a combined power supply of 350 MW, far below the normal demand in the two provinces which reaches 597 MW.

Meanwhile, South Sumatra province is currently contributing an extra 25MW-125 MW of electricity per day to the two provinces through the Southern Sumatra grid. (*)