W. Java's Jatiluhur plant stops supplying electricity

The Jatiluhur hydropower plant in West Java has stopped supplying power over the past week because water supply from nearby dam had dropped drastically, Bisnis Indonesia daily reported Thursday.

The plant has the power-generating capacity of 176 megawatts.

The water volume of the Jatiluhur dam dropped to 260.30 million cubic meters on September 8, from its normal volume of 2.5 billion cubic meters due to prolonged draught, the paper quoted as saying Endro Yulianto, deputy manager for communication of the West Java and Banten office of state electricity firm PLN.

Water from the Jatiluhur dam is also distributed to area rice fields and drinking water projects, Endro said Wednesday.

Endro said rains had fallen in the area over the past days, but the water level of the Citarum River, which supplies water to the dam, had not risen significantly.

Aside from the Jatiluhur dam, the river supplies water to two other dams in West Java, that is the Saguling and Cirata dams, which have the power generating capacities of 700 MW and 300 MW respectively.

However, Endro noted that the Jatiluhur plant's failure to supply electricity had not affected power supply for Java and Bali.

He said the recent power blackout in West Java, especially in the province's capital of Bandung, was not because of the supply problems from the Jatiluhur plant, but becuase of repair works by PLN on old distribution networks in the area. (*)