PLTA Peusangan project facing land acquisition obstacles

State owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) said the development of its PLTA Peusangan hydropower project in Aceh province is now halfway to finish but the progress of development of transmission lines for the power plant has been hampered by land acquisition problems.

Company Senior Manager of Public Relations Agung Murdifi said in a statement on Monday that the construction progress of the 88 MW power plant has reached 56.7 percent and the project is expected to start commercial operation in 2019. Once completed, the power plant will become the biggest using renewable enregy in the province,

Simultaneously, PLN is building a transmission line from Bireun to Takengon and distribution lines in Aceh Tengah, Bener Meriah and Bireun regencies that will be used to deliver power from the power plant to customers. The development of the distribution line has finished but the development of Biruen-Takengon transmission is facing land acquisition problems.

PLN needs 246 ha of lands to build a total of 203 towers for the transmission lines. However, as of March of this year, the firm has only been able to appropriate 209 ha. PLN has secured lands for 119 of the 203 towers planned to be built, while lands for the remaining 84 towers remain unappropriated.

Peak loads in Aceh stand at 320-340 MW. At present, the province relies on power supplies from local power plants, PLTU Nagan Raya coal fired power plant (160 MW) and PLTMG Arun gas engine power plant (184 MW) and PLTD Ayangan diesel power generator (20 MW), and power supplies from neighboring North Sumatra province. Once PLTA Peusangan has come into operation, PLN may discontinue the operation of PLTD Ayangan, Agung said.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon