Tackling the power supply shortage seems a hard enough job, but here comes another pressing problem for the new chief of state utility firm PT PLN to deal with — possible insubordination from the workers.

On the same day media mogul Dahlan Iskan was inaugurated into his new job as boss of PLN on Wednesday, workers claiming to represent the employees union protested, rejecting his appointment, and calling him “an outsider”.

Dahlan, CEO of the media group Jawa Pos, replaced Fahmi Mochtar.

The protesters also briefly sealed his new office by putting banners and posters all around the room.

Looking relaxed, Dahlan said he welcomed the challenge and was eager to prove them wrong.

“I can understand why they treat me this way, because they think I am a journalist and know nothing about electricity,” Dahlan told reporters during a media conference after his inauguration as the new PLN president director in Jakarta.

“We will get through this slowly.”

Dahlan said he did actually know something about the country’s electricity sector, having served as president director of two independent power producers — PT Cahaya Fajar Kaltim in East Kalimantan and PT Prima Electric Power in Surabaya, East Java.

“I have a power plant. A small one, with a capacity of less than one percent of all the power plants in the country,” he said, adding that he would study the regulations banning a high official at PLN owning stakes in a power plant.

“I will abide by the regulations and be ready to sell my stakes.”

State Minister for State Enterprises Mustafa Abubakar said after the inauguration that Dahlan was selected because he “offered good and radical” programs to improve PLN’s performance and reduce electricity shortages in the country.

“He offers good and radical concepts. The examples include a plan to accelerate conversion from oil to gas, and to ease significantly [the cost of] electricity subsidies in 2014,” Mustafa said.

Mustafa refused to elaborate the plans, saying Dahlan and PLN would come up and explain to the media his detailed plans “pretty soon”.

If the plan works, Mustafa said, PLN could save between Rp 10 trillion and Rp 15 trillion (US$1.57billion) in spending per year.

Dahlan also plans to reduce electricity leakage in transmission from about 10 percent now to less than 8.5 percent by 2014, Mustafa said.

“We will see, because there is a performance-related contract between Dahlan and the government.

We should not underestimate him, just give him a chance. If he fails within a year, we do not need to retain him,” Mustafa said.

Mustafa also rejected accusations that the government had chosen the wrong person to lead the company.

“The leader doesn’t need just a technical capacity. It requires also leadership and good management capacity,” he said, adding that in the future PLN would face many challenges, including to seek financing for the second 10,000 megawatts program.

Besides Dahlan, the government also appointed seven new commissioners and 10 new directors.

Previously, PLN had only 5 commissioners and 6 directors, including a president director.

The government had been irritated with PLN’s handling of the massive blackouts in many parts of the country, in particular between September and the third week of December in Greater Jakarta, and began looking for alternatives for Fahmi ever since the negative impacts of these power cuts struck home, especially in capital city.

In the short and medium terms, PLN is depending on two massive programs — the first and second 10,000 MW power plant programs to help the country cope with the power electricity shortage.

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