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ue to soaring consumption and maintenance activities, state electricity company PT PLN reported Wednesday that several areas in Sumatra and Aceh have experienced a lack of electricity supply over the past several weeks.

PLN’s head of the transmission division for western Indonesia Yanuar Hakim explained that the lack of power supply reached 74.3 megawatts (MW) as the demand for power in Sumatra jumped by 90 MW after the Idul Fitri holidays two weeks ago.

He added that the electricity crisis in Sumatra occurred due to several large capacity power plants entering the period for regular maintenance. They include gas-fired Indralaya in South Sumatra; coal-fired Tarahan in Lampung; coal-fired Bukit Asam 4 in South Sumatra; coal-fired Asahan 1, and coal-fired Belawan 2 and 3 in North Sumatra.

“Those power plants have a total combined capacity of 378 MW,” said Yanuar, adding that the maintenance work is expected to be completed next week. “We promise to normalize the electricity supply as soon as possible.”

The lack of supply mostly occurred during the evenings when power consumption peaked, he revealed. To keep distributing electricity evenly, PLN had to cut off electricity to almost all regions of Sumatra for two hours in rotation.

Earlier, PLN had claimed that it planned to further increase the supply of electricity in Sumatra. Several power plant construction projects have been offered to independent operators, such as a gas-fired power plant in Merah Mata, South Sumatra with a total capacity of 60 MW.

In addition, PLN is also building the gas-fired Payo Selincah power plant in Jambi with a capacity of 100 MW, and the gas-fired Talang Duku power plant in Musi Banyuasing, South Sumatra with a capacity of 60 MW.

As well as increasing electrical supplies in Sumatra, the construction of the gas-fired power plants also aims to curb PLN’s dependence on oil-based fuels.

However, gas-fired power plants in Sumatra cannot operate optimally due to gas shortfalls. Payo Selincah is one of the power plants which faces difficulties in acquiring sufficient gas supplies.

PLN is also building the Asahan 3 hydro power plant in North Sumatra, which will have a total capacity of 2x87 MW. The power plant is expected to help increase electrical supply in the province. The construction of the power plant is scheduled to be completed in 2014 and its commercial operation will commence immediately.

The status of several geothermal power plants in Sumatra, such as in Muaralaboh, West Sumatra, and Gunung Rajabasa, Lampung, is unclear due to the reluctance of developers to sign power purchase agreements with PLN.