PLN?s boss summoned over power blackout
Thursday, May 29 2003 - 04:21 AM WIB
"There is an indication that the blackout was not caused by technical problem but due to miss management," the minister was quoted as saying by Republika on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters following a meeting with members of House of Representatives (DPR) on Wednesday, the minister said that the ministry?s directorate general for electricity and energy had asked PLN?s management to clarify the blackout problem.
In the meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday (today), the management of PLN would be asked to explain in details the reason behind the power blackout.
PLN said on Monday that it would cut off power supply in some parts of Java and Bali due to technical problems suffered by the Gresik power plant in East Java and Muara Tawar power plant in West Java and the geothermal power plant in Gunung Salak, West Java.
The technical problems in the two power plants has reduced the power supply in the Java and Bali transmission grid by 600 MW. During peak hours, the supply shortage reaches about 410 MW because the existing power plants are able only to provide supply of about 12,840 MW while the demand reaches about 13,250 MW.
PLN said that the Gresik power plant suffered a technical problem because the plant had used oil as its fuel instead of gas as it was supposed to. The technical problem has reduced the supply from this power plant by 200 MW.
A similar problem occurred in the Muara Tawar plant, which had seen its power generation capacity to decline by 200 MW. The interruption occurred also due to the change in the fuel from gas to oil.
Besides the two plants, the Gunung Salak geothermal power plant in West Java also suffer a technical problem due to landslide in the area recently. The supply from this power plant declines by 100 MW