PLN unveils electricity theft worth Rp 9.6 billion in Bogor

State owned electricity company PLN said that it had found a massive power theft carried out by a textile company in Bogor, West Java, recently, causing financial loss of at least Rp 9.6 billion to the power utility company, Kompas reported on Monday.

Murtaqi Syamsuddin, the general manager for PLN's distribution in Banten and West Java, said in Jakarta on Saturday that the textile company identified only with its initial PT LLJ was found to have illegally connected its power network with the power distribution grid at PLN's power relay station near the textile company's factory.

"The theft was detected when PLN's contractor inspected the power relay station," he said, adding that PLN believed that the theft had began since six months ago.

Murtaqi acknowledged that due to poor control, many power theft had left undetected. "We are investigating if there are PLN employees involved in the theft," he said.

PLN said that electricity theft and the power loss accounted for about 11 percent of the company's total power supply.

A side from electricity theft, PLN's two major power plants in West Java, which are the Muara Karang and Tanjung Priok combined cycle power plants, had experience drop in electricity generation due to gas supply drop.

PLN senior official Muljo Adji said since last week gas supply dropped to below 30MMCFD to each plant forced PLN to shut down 4 gas turbines in Muara Karang and 2 in Tanjung Priok. Tanjung Priok normally gets 200MMCFD of gas per day (supplied by ONWJ Ed) and Muara karang 90 MMCFD. (*)