Blackouts scheduled for Jakarta and Tangerang between July 11 and 25 may put traffic lights out of order, state electricity firm PT PLN has warned.
"Traffic lights may be affected because their electricity is supplied from the public electricity network," PLN Jakarta and Tangerang general distribution manager Purnomo Willy said at City Hall on Wednesday.
"But we'll maintain the power supply to public service facilities, such as trains, hospitals, schools and government offices, as well as (Soekarno-Hatta International) Airport," he said.
PLN "will try" not to cut the power supply to busway facilities, he said, "but there will be no guarantee as the electricity management for those facilities is complicated".
Head of the Jakarta transportation agency's traffic management subagency, Riza Hashim, said his agency and the Jakarta Police would deploy officers at locations with dysfunctional traffic lights.
Gas stations also will have to cope with the blackouts, Willy said.
All Pertamina gas stations "have been equipped with generators", state oil and gas firm Pertamina spokesman Wisnuntoro said.
There are more than 500 Pertamina gas stations in the city and about 1,000 in Greater Jakarta.
Shell and Petronas also confirmed their gas stations had power generators to back up their operations during the blackouts.
Shell operates 21 gas stations in Jakarta and Tangerang, and Petronas operates eight.
Electricity consumption in Jakarta can reach between 4,500 megawatts (MW) and 5,000 MW during peak hours, which usually fall between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
PLN has been forced to schedule the rotating blackouts because the gas supply to two of its power stations -- a 900 MW plant in Tanjung Priok and a 750 MW plant in Muara Karang, both in North Jakarta -- will be suspended, PLN Jakarta distribution manager Widodo Budi Nugroho said last Friday.
The two power stations receive their gas from multinational energy giant BP, which will suspend gas supplies for two weeks for routine maintenance of its central flow station located offshore West Java. The maintenance includes the installation of a low-pressure flare tip.
Willy said PLN had had to replace gas with fuel to operate the two plants "but they generate 150 MW less than the required amount".
He said PLN planned to run public awareness advertisements about the blackouts on more than 10 radio stations and in at least two local newspapers, including Koran Jakarta and Pos Kota.
The information will be available two days before the power cuts, he said.
Customers affected by the power cuts will get a 10 percent discount on their July bills as compensation, he said.
But some Jakarta residents are not happy about the blackouts, as they explained to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Housewife Neneng, in Palmerah, West Jakarta, said blackouts would disrupt her household activities, as well as her boarding house and electronic repair shop businesses.
"Two weeks of blackouts will be a big problem for a boarding-house owner like me. There will be a lack of water for all my tenants," she said.
Another housewife and a resident of South Jakarta's Petukangan, Pramuda, said she would have to buy and fill a water tank before the blackouts, because her water supply depends on an electric pump.
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