Government to speed up electricity projects in Aceh

Coordinating Minister for Economy Aburizal Barkrie said that the government would speed up ongoing electricity projects in Aceh and North Sumatra in a bid to cope with the shortage of electricity supply in the areas, Kompas reported on Monday.

Aburizal said that the government would provide extra money to cope with the shortage of funds to finance ongoing electricity projects including the construction of power transmission grids in the area.

In addition, the government would also provide incentives to encourage the private sector to build new power plants in the provinces, the minister said, adding that the government would also speed up the gas pipeline projects to support the operation of power plants.

State owned electricity company has cut off the power supply to industries during the night due to the shortage of the electricity supply. "The power supply to households alone has reached 1,020 MW, while the total supply provided by existing power plants is only about 900 MW," PLN's president Eddie Widiono said.

According to Eddie, existing power plants could not operate at full capacity due to the decline in the gas supply. This has forced the electricity plants to use diesel oil, which has caused them to suffer financial loss due the high price of the oil.

The power plants in the area receive gas supply of only about 40,000 cubic feet per day, much lower than their actual needs of 100,000 cubic feet per day, Eddie added. (*)