Blackout On Java Due To Coal Disruption

JAKARTA - Large parts of Indonesia's most crowded island, Java, and the resort haven of Bali are hit by severe blackouts as bad weather at ports hampered coal delivery to power plants, but mining operations are unaffected, officials said on Thursday.

The power crunch in Java and Bali, which started late on Wednesday, was the result of an electricity deficit of about 1,000 megawatts, an official at the state power monopoly said.
The outages are continuing into Thursday, even though the power deficit has been halved but the blackout could spread to other areas in Java if coal supplies do not pick up soon, said Mulyo Adji, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara's (PLN) spokesman.

"Some power plants are running below capacity and some of them are going back to fuel oil. We have turned off supplies to several areas in Java as PLN has a power deficit," Adji said.

"Coal supplies to some power plants in Java have been stopped, as ships cannot go to ports because of big waves."

The coal disruptions add to problems faced by Indonesia's utility sector that is often hit by outages because of ageing power plant equipment and soaring demand due to its brisk economic growth. The last major blackout was in August 2005.

Officials say electricity demand is growing around 10 percent a year, outstripping power supply in a country of more than 220 million as investments in generating plants and transmission lines have lagged....

The disruptions in Indonesia, the world's largest thermal coal exporter, came as Asian prices have spiked by more than half over the past month after China slapped a two-month ban on exports due to a power crisis, heavy rain shut down Australian mines and port problems disrupted South African shipments...

Indonesia plans to step up power generation capacity to meet soaring demand by building new coal-fired and natural gas plants, but the projects need huge investments...

The government wants to add 24,000 MW of electricity by 2013 from projects estimated to cost $30 billion. This includes a plan to generate an additional 10,000 megawatts (MW) using coal as a source by 2010....

Despite the power shortage, operations of key miners in Java were unaffected as mining firms have their own power sources, while the impact on the capital, Jakarta, was minor and businesses had not been hit.

Mining activity at the Pongkor gold mine in West Java and smelting in precious metal refinery PT Logam Mulia in Jakarta -- both operated by state miner PT Aneka Tambang -- was normal, Bimo Budi Satriyo, Antam's corporate secretary, said.

Operations at Indonesian copper smelter PT Smelting in Gresik, East Java were also unaffected, as it has its own gas-fired power plant, said Dukut Imam Widodo, PT Smelting's general affairs manager.