PLN's response to regions' power need too slow: Minister

Antara ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 07/29/2008 4:36 PM  |  National

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Sri Mulyani Indrawati said state-owned electricity company PLN was too slow in responding to the need for electricity, hampering economic growth in the regions.

"I think PLN's response to the need for electricity in the regions is too slow. This is one of the aspects the government has to evaluate," the minister said.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the signing of agreements between PLN and a number of banks on credit provisions, she said the difficulty to obtain electricity in Manado, North Sulawesi province, was an example.

"I was to commission a new state financial institute building in Manado recently, but it turned out the commissioning had to be postponed for six to nine months because the building has not yet
been given electricity," she said.

She said she imagined that it would be more difficult to obtain electricity in towns smaller than Manado.

"Manado is the provincial capital of North Sulawesi. I just can imagine about the availability of electricity in smaller towns," the minister said.

She called on the PLN management to be more responsive, but asked that it should remain consistent with the prudential principle.

Mulyani said the 10,000-megawatt thermal power project was underwritten by the government so that each time an agreement on its financing was signed, the finance minister must be present to witness it.(**)

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Arthur DeMille (not verified) — Tue, 07/29/2008 - 9:35pm

PLN continues to be critized by Government officials for the lack of adequate power generation and distribution, yet the those in power fail to recognize that they are the problem.

PLN and the Private Sector can not successfully build new electrical power generating capacity if the Government does not provide a positive economic climate for investment. For the past decade, industry leaders and private investors have warned that the lack of action by the Energy Ministry to address the power shortages would bring about chaos and serious economic hardships for the general public and the businesses that provide employment for the people.

Those warnings have been ignored and even worse, discounted by Government officials as efforts by the private sector to take advantage of critical electrical shortages. There will be no doubt that by the Government's policy of "doing nothing", hard feelings will surface when the private sector is called upon to
relieve and solve the electrical shortages. The Government has wasted precious time and by continuing to delay action, will cause electricity prices to rise. A decade ago, it stated that
"Private sector electricity is better than no electricity at all". Those words are so true today!

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