T

he urgency for electricity and the failure of state power authority PLN to cater to needs has pushed villagers in Lampung to build a micro-hydro power installation on their own.

“Thank God! We can now enjoy electricity that supports our activities. We have worked hard and independently to produce electricity,” Gusti Kadek Hartawan, a farmer at Pagar Bukit village, Bengkunat district, West Lampung regency, said recently.

The farmers, grouped under the Democratic Farmers Association, pulled together their own resources to build a medium-scale hydro power station (PLTA), assisted by a company and local officials.

The village now enjoys electricity after dark at night.

Kadek said they had repeatedly asked PLN to link their village to the power grids.

However, PLN rejected their pleas on the grounds that it lacked funds to build installations to provide power to the village.

According to Kadek, the villagers later initiated carrying out the hydro-power plan by raising funds to buy equipment for the installation.

The power installation was established by damming up the small river passing through the village to propel the turbine to produce electricity.

“The power is relayed to the majority of homes by wire. Only a dozen homes and the village hall are directly linked to power, but we will make further efforts to link every home directly to power,” said Kadek.

Electricity has been a luxury in West Lampung. The presence of the 90-megawatt Way Besai PLTA has not been able to stem power shortages, with only 28 percent of 418,560 people (around 100,000 families) enjoying electricity.

West Lampung Regent Mukhlis Basri said Lampung roughly needed 7 megawatts of power for every home.

“As PLN is unable to fulfill the power demand, the West Lampung regency administration has built dozens of power installations worth billions of rupiah, but only two of them have operated,” said Mukhlis.

Not only homes, but businesses are also deprived of power, such as a mobile phone operator, which has also been forced to build its own micro-hydro power installation in operating its base transceiver station (BTS).

Mobile phone Telkomsel official Ivan Cahya Permana said his company had initially relied on solar and diesel power generators.

“However, we met obstacles because the area has limited sunshine due to daily thick fog. We also faced trouble in obtaining diesel fuel, so we eventually switched to micro-hydro energy,” said Ivan.

Ivan claimed that Telkomsel’s BTS units were the first to use micro-hydro energy in Southeast Asia.

Besides being used to operate the BTS, the micro-hydro energy in Suoh district is also connected to residents’ homes.

According to Ivan, the micro-hydro BTS has a reach of 5 kilometers and can conserve up to 30 percent in energy compared to solar cells.

“Other benefits include power supply for local residents for their daily activities, thus improving their productivity,” he said.

The existing PLN-own electricity plant has not reached Suoh yet with the last grid standing in Gunung Doh village, Tanggamus regency, some 40 kilometers from Suoh.

A small number of residents have been dependent on a diesel generator owned by a local community figure with power use restricted between 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily.