Frequent Blackouts Occur, Legislators Highlight The Electricity System In Aceh

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives Aria Bima highlighted that the electricity system in Aceh Province is still experiencing rotating blackouts.

For this reason, Commission VI of the DPR RI will mitigate this in a working meeting of Commission VI of the DPR RI with related partners.

“Electricity (in Aceh) has a by-arpet, while the oversupply is 224 megawatts. So where is the real problem? So, there are some related to transmission. Transmission in State Capital Participation (PMN) of IDR 10 trillion in 2023. Here (Aceh) alone absorbs approximately IDR 60 billion multiplied by 2, so IDR 120 billion (for) two transmissions," said Aria Bima in his official statement, Tuesday, August 9th.

He hopes that the problems related to the distribution and transmission of electricity in Aceh can be resolved soon, considering that upstream there is an over supply of 224 megawatts, so that his party reminds that this must be mitigated in the future.

Meanwhile, another member of Commission VI, Tommy Kurniawan said, if there is indeed a surplus of electricity upstream and there are problems in the transmission system, then it must be socialized to the relevant village apparatus, so that the community knows and understands the constraints of rotating electricity blackouts.

Moreover, continued Tommy, he had suggested to the Board of Directors of PT PLN regarding this transmission issue.

According to him, it is necessary to install a sensor in the transmission system, so that when a problem occurs in the transmission system, the sensor can send a signal to the super platform created by PLN, so which transmission problems can be resolved immediately.

"First it is efficient, because there is no need for people to check in the field. Second, it can be handled quickly and in my opinion it can be an early warning for problems in the field. There are many problems. Not only that, cable problems, and others so on," said Tommy

Currently, PLN has issued an application called PLN Mobile, so that every time there is a problem related to electricity, the application will inform various things related to the system's electricity needs, as well as other complaints.

According to the politician from the National Awakening Party (PKB), since the application was published, up to now it has undergone significant improvements. Starting from its more user interface, and other practical conveniences.

However, according to Tommy, matters relating to customer complaints cannot be immediately responded to, it still takes time and is not handled quickly.

Moreover, it is related to the purchase of electricity token balances which, according to him, is also inefficient and practical.

"But there are still many problems, yes, it's just getting better. For example, the problem in this application is if the electricity wants to run out, for example, usually when the pulse runs out, it still counts based on usage, there is no notification," he explained.

During a meeting between the Committee VI House of Representatives' Working Committee Team with partners, it was revealed that the existing electricity conditions in Aceh include, with a grid system, a total capable power of 669 megawatts, with a peak load of 445 megawatts, and a surplus of 224 megawatts.

Meanwhile, with an isolated system, the total power is capable of 27 megawatts, a peak load of 24.3 megawatts and a surplus of 2.7 megawatts. Then for the realization of the electricity village ratio (RD) Sumatra-Kalimantan for the period of June 2022,

for Aceh alone, there are 6,497 villages, all of which are electrified.