State firms asked to help settle power shortage

South Sumatra provincial administration will ask the province's three major state companies Pertamina, fertilizer producer PT Pusri and coal producer PT Bukit Asam to help settle the acute electricity shortage in the province, Sriwijaya Pos reported on Friday.

Amir Putra, the head of the Commission C of the province's Legislative Council, said that the local government had no choice but to ask the three companies to allocate part of their power supply to the state electricity company PT PLN in order to help settle the power problem.

He said that the council would soon discuss the matter with executives of the three companies so that the power shortage in the province could be minimized. "The power generating capacities of the three companies have exceeded their needs and we appeal them to allocate part of the supply to PLN," he said.

South Sumatra, Lampung and Bengkulu provinces have suffered acute power shortage in recent months due to the delay in the construction of several power plants. PLN has been forced to rotate the power supply in the region, causing a power blackout in several parts of the area. (*)