N

strong>Nov. 26, p5

Recurrent blackouts in North Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) over the past several weeks have left local residents frustrated as they struggle to carry out daily activities.

The blackouts imposed by state-owned electricity firm PLN in the Suluttenggo (North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo) area have recently worsened, with durations lasting up to eight hours daily.

Charensia Repie, a resident of Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi, claimed the blackouts had severely disrupted her activities.

'€œThe blackouts occur in the morning and electricity is only restored at night,'€ she said on Tuesday.

Charensia also expressed disappointment over the long-standing power outages as they had caused her electrical appliances at home to become defective.

Lion Hotel and Plaza Manado general manager Rahmat Billy, meanwhile, said the power outages had impacted operational costs.

'€œOur expenses have swelled. If we operate the generator from 5 to 10 p.m. we may use up around 700 liters of diesel, which costs us Rp 5.5 million (US$400),'€ added Rahmat.

Your comments:

Try blackouts over the past three months, three times a day 3 hours each time, day and night. Bandar Lampung'€™s residents are furious, but accept it as if it is normal to be abused.

I'€™m more than angry with the pathetic PLN in Lampung and irate that the government does nothing.

If this is Jokowi'€™s '€œmental revolution'€, to keep people in the dark, PLN is certainly doing their job, however, if it'€™s not, then PLN is a terrible failure!

I hope all the comments posted here get published, so I can personally deliver the Jakarta Post to the PLN office.

Willo1246

North Sumatra also has the same problem and, as far as I know, it is only Jakarta that does not suffer.

AA1945

'€œDear Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for contacting PLN 123 via Facebook. We apologize for the inconvenience. For security of customer data, please send your service request by email to pln123@pln.co.id. Thank you for the attention.'€

They are always apologizing, fix nothing and never reply to emails.

Willy

The PLN is incompetent nationwide except where central government personnel would be affected. Another failure of a state-owned enterprise that plays games with the lives of people by not giving the services they should. Every look at this business is a look at failure. Dealing with their customers. Planning for future growth. Updating old equipment. Everywhere you look, all failure. But, the same people continue to operate it.

Simaging

Hey PLN. That ain'€™t your only problem. Bandar Lampung has been having eight-hour outages per day, too. People here should be in an uproar.

The government even called you to appear before them. In your high and mighty status as a failing state-owned business, you refused to show up. What'€™s also bad is while you have control over the switches to turn areas on and off, you don'€™t even have the professionalism to put out outage announcements. For a service enterprise, you have failed miserably.

Sima