Electrification Ratio In Central Sulawesi 76 Percent

id pln

Electrification Ratio In Central Sulawesi 76 Percent

Manager PT PLN Area Palu Novalince (fajar.co.id)

Palu, C Sulawesi,  (antarasulteng.com) - Electrification ratio in Central Sulawesi was 76 percent by the end of 2015, the regional branch of the national power utility PLN said.

"We hope to increase the rural electrification ratio to 80 percent in 2016," Manager of the Palu area of PLN Novalince said here on Monday.

Based on data at the provincial administration, Central Sulawesi, has 1,839 villages in its 12 districts, Novalince said.

Around 24 percent of the villages are still without electricity or not yet covered by PLN, he said.

He said PLN has continued to expand its networks to cover more villages in the province , but there are still difficulties with the limited capacity of generating plants.

The budget is limited for expansion of coverage of the distribution networks especially expansion to areas in difficult terrain, he added.

There are many isolated and small villages spread in far flung area that construction of the infrastructure would be very expensive, he said.

Even road infrastructure is not yet available for some villages in mountainous areas, he added.

Many of the village could be reached only on foot or by motorcycles, but not where there was rain, he added.

"Therefore, road infrastructure is the first in priority to enable PLN to build its infrastructure," he said.

Most of the villages not yet covered by PLN are in the districts of Sigi, Donggala and Poso.

Earlier, PLN said household electrification in three southern provinces of Sulawesi has reached a ratio of 86.3 percent.

The regional office of PLN said by February, 2016, electrification was around 90.34 percent in South Sulawesi province, 75.64 percent in Southeast Sulawesi province and 78.18 percent in the province of West Sulawesi.

Jemmy Sumampow, head of the system planning division of the regional office of PLN, said the three provinces use renewable energy to generate electricity including water energy, solar energy wind energy , etc.

PLN itself has built a number of power plants using renewable energy in the region, Jemmy said.

In addition, PLN has asked independent power producers (IPP) to build power plants, he said, adding the output from the power plants of the private sector would be bought by PLN.

He cited PLN already bought power from IPP using renewable energy such as PLTA Poso with a capacity of 3x60 megawatts, PLTA Tangkamanipi 10 MW, PLTM Simbuang 3MW, PLTA Siteba 7.5 MW.

Currently many IPPs wanted to build solar power plants (PLTS), hydro power plants (PLTA and wind power plants (PLTB) in the three provinces, he said.

In Gorontalo, the northern province of Sulawesi, the regional the branch of PLN said household electrification in that province reached only 75-76 percent.

Manager of the Gorontalo branch of PLN Putu Eka Astawa said the central government has hired Marine Vessel Power Plant (MVPP) "Karadeniz Powership Zeynep Sultan" from Turkey to increase power supply for the province.

The MVPP, leased for five years by PLN, has a capacity of 20 MW which is linked to the North Sulawesi-Gorontalo power interconnection of PLN.