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t least 553 villages comprising 60,000 households in South Sumatra province have not yet been connected to the electricity grid by state-owned electricity company PT PLN.

The 553 villages are located in remote places in 15 regencies/cities throughout the province, with the largest number being found in Lahat and South Ogan Komering Ulu regencies.

“Electricity production in South Sumatra is in surplus so that we can even transmit it to Java [through the existing interconnection transmission system], but we have difficulties transmitting it to remote areas,” Agung Sutedja, the general manager of PLN’s South Sumatra, Jambi and Bengkulu area, said in Palembang on Wednesday.