R

esidents living at the foot of Mount Lompobattang in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, are no longer living in the dark with the use of microhydro power to light their homes.

They are slowly catching up to the regency’s more developed areas and have already seen their living conditions start to improve, thanks to the rotating turbines of several microhydro power plants.

The community-based plants were built along the border area of Bantaeng and Bulukumba regencies in 2015. Designed by the Environment and Forestry Research and Development Agency (BP2LHK) Makassar, they have provided residents the boost they needed in energy production and economic independence.

As of 2017, BP2LHK Makassar has developed five microhydro power plants in four villages in Bulukumba, namely Senggang, Katimbang, Kayu Biranga and Na’na. As a direct result, 113 households now have access to electricity.

“Now, we are free from the darkness. We can enjoy the light at night. We receive information and entertainment from outside [the region] because we can now watch television. Children can study at night while housewives can use rice cookers — all because of the microhydro power plants,” Kayu Biranga resident Ramli, 37, told journalists on Thursday.

Villagers previously depended on oil lamps to light their evenings.

Bulukumba Regent Andi Sukri Sappewali said Kayu Biranga was one of nine villages in the regency that had not been electrified prior to the power plants’ construction.

The Bulukumba administration once used solar panels to generate power, he added. However, the panels broke easily and resident eventually decided to revert to oil lamps.

Kayu Biranga residents, meanwhile, had tried using diesel generators that only operated from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day, but the operational costs were high because the machines required a lot of fuel.

In 2015, the residents of Kayu Biranga, Katimbang and Senggang decided to turn to microhydro power to light up their villages. They had been inspired by the operation of a microhydro power plant jointly built by the Bulukumba administration and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), an NGO focused on the management of tropical forests, in Senggang in 2014.

BP2LHK Makassar responded to their wishes and in 2015 began developing self-supporting microhydro power plants.

In Senggang, BP2LHK Makassar built with the help of local residents a microhydro power plant with a capacity of 7 kilowatts (KW), followed by 5-KW and 10-KW power plants in Ketimbang and Kayu Biranga, respectively. A 20-KW power plant was later built in Kayu Biranga in 2017, followed by another power plant with a 15-KW capacity in Na’na.

The four villages’ combined capacity of 57 KW is enough to provide electricity 24 hours a day. Each household can enjoy 200 watts of electricity.