Fire strikes Barito diesel power plant

A number of areas in South and Central Kalimantan have been without power after a fire struck a diesel power plant in Barito, Banjarmasin on Saturday night, Media Indonesia reported on Monday.

Yudi Setio Wicaksono, the General Manager of PLN for South and Central Kalimantan, said that the operation of nine generator sets had been temporarily suspended due to the fire, causing further worsening of the power shortage in the two provinces.

In normal days the disel power generators in Barito could provide power supply of about 1.5 megawatt each.

The two provinces have been in acute shortage of power supply due to interruption of the operations of several power plants in the areas due to technical problems.

The unit 3 of PT Asam-asam coal-fired power plant, with a capacity of 65 MW, is currently under repair due to some damages in its generator. The units 1 and 2 of the plant, with combined capacity of 130 megawatt, also have yet to begin operation after being repaired.

The shutdown of these power units have resulted in deficit of about 25 MW in power supply in the province. This has forced PLN to rotate the power supply. (*)