West Sumatra, Riau face severe shortage of power supply

Vice Governor of Riau R.A. Aziz said in Pekanbaru on Thursday that West Sumatra and Riau provinces are facing a severe shortage of power supply due to the continued increase in the electricity demand in the two provinces.

In the next 20 years, West Sumatra and Riau would suffer a power shortage of 3,700 MW if no efforts were made to build a new power plant, he said. ?The existing power supply can not meet the rapid increase in the demand. As the consequence, there will be critical shortage of power supply in the coming years,? he added.

He said the Riau province has abundant coal reserves which could be used to generate more power supply. But he said that no investors were interested in taking the advantage of the existing coal resource.

The existing power plant PLTA Koto Panjang is only able to produce 91.7 MW per day, while the demand during peak hours reach about 135 MW. The additional supply of 40 MW is taken from the West Sumatra power grade. (*)