Fire hit transformer at Suralaya power plant facility

By Godang Sitompul

Fire hit a transformer unit at the Suralaya coal-fired power plant facility in Banten Sunday afternoon, briefly disrupting power supply to the Java-Bali system.

State-owned electricity firm PLN said in a statement that the fire hit transformer unit four at 3.30 p.m., causing power trip at unit 3, 6, and 7 of the Suralaya power plant facility, and briefly disrupting power supply to the Java system. Power supply was resumed at 5 p.m., although supply turned to be insufficient during peak hours, forcing PLN to reduce load by around 500 MW.

The Suralaya coal-fired power plant has seven power generation units with a combined capacity of 3,400 MW, supplying electricity to the Java-Bali power system. PLN said there will be no brown-out scheduled for today as the existing reserves will be enough to compensate for the power trip caused by the fire-hit transformer unit four.

PLN said that the transformer was already 30 years old and the company has actually already planned to replace the aging unit.

Meanwhile, Djoko Hastowo, President Director of PT Indonesia Power, a subsidiary of PLN, which operates the plant, told Petromindo.com that investigation is currently underway as to find out the cause of the fire incident.

He added that the Suralaya power plant is currently only operating units 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 as the condition of two other power generating units, unit 3 and 4, are still being checked in the wake of the fire incident.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak