Large customers required to pay electricity in U.S. dollar: PLN

The electricity tariff for large-scale corporate customers will be based on U.S.-dollar as part of the state electricity company PLN's plan to raise power charges in June this year, the company's president Edi Widiono said.

Speaking at a seminar on the ideal electricity tariffs in Surabaya on Tuesday, Edi said that the U.S. dollar-based tariff would be applied on corporate customers with electricity use of above 2,000 MW.

Companies, which agree to use the dollar-based tariff will be protected with a three-year contract which will allow them to seek a compensation from PLN if there is a power cut or blackout during the contract.

He said that the plan to use the dollar-based tariff have been informed to the large-scale users. "They generally give a good response on the plan due to the power supply guarantee," he was quoted as saying by Bisnis Indonesia.

According to Edi, the dollar-based tariff will give mutual benefit to both customers and PLN. "Customers will have certainty about the power supply but at the same time they will also share the burden from the possible depreciation of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar," he added.

PLN, which buys its power from private companies in U.S. dollar, has been under severe financial problem due to the sharp depreciation of the rupiah against the American dollar. The price of the power it buys is now about 300 percent higher than its selling price due to the rupiah's sharp fall. (*)