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N.Sulawesi residents continue to suffer from rolling energy crisis
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Excess power – Visitors look around the marine vessel power plant MVPP Zeynep Sultan in Manado, North Sulawesi, recently. (thejakartapost.com/Lita Aruperes)
P
eople in Manado, North Sulawesi, continue to live in the grip of a serious energy crisis, with parts of the city still facing regular blackouts.
In the latest case, residents of the Malalayang and Winangun subdistricts suffered an 11-hour power cut starting from Monday afternoon through to early Tuesday.
“Indonesia has been independent for 71 years. However, Manado still suffers from an electricity crisis. The power cut began at around 4 p.m., local time, on Monday, and ended at 3 a.m. on Tuesday,” said Lynvia Yintze Gunde, a Malalayang resident. She said it was the worst blackout to have affected Malalayang, which suffers power cuts almost every day.
Yani Sigar, the assistant manager for the Manado service area of state electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), said the 11-hour power cut occurred purely due to technical problems.
“There have been disruptions to our cut-out [CO] equipment,” said Sigar, adding that the company had resolved the problem. CO is a network safety system used to cut excessive electrical currents.
The blackouts raise questions because PLN’s North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo branches earlier reported that they had up to 70 Megawatts (MW) of surplus electricity supply.
The supply comes from several power plants, including the marine vessel power plant MVPP Zeynep Sultan with a capacity of up to 120 MW in Amurang, South Minahasa, and the newly constructed gas-fueled power plant (PLTG) in Gorontalo with a capacity of 100 MW.
The existing burden on the electricity system in North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo reaches 325 MW, while supply from nearby power plants reaches 395 MW. Therefore, there is an excess of power of around 70 MW. (ebf)
