JAKARTA - Indonesian state utility company PLN is gearing up to provide gas-powered electricity to part of East Indonesia, using a floating facility and onshore generation capacities, after massive blackouts last year dampened investor confidence in the mineralrich region, sources said.
The measure coming in the wake of pressure on PLN from the South Sulawesi government - is a temporary solution to ensure industrial parks have adequate power for furnaces. Most of the tenants in these parks make nickel chemical compounds used in the nationally important production of electric vehicle (EV) car batteries.
Massive intermittent blackouts have plagued businesses and households in Sulawesi, while a prolonged drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon dried up reservoirs and slashed hydropower production significantly, straining the power grid. Hydropower supplies more than a third of the electricity in Sulawesi.
A senior official with the South Sulawesi provincial government told The Straits Times that PLN aims to have the gas-fired electricity sourced from privately owned power producers available by mid-2024. PLN has monopoly rights to distribute electricity to end users in South-east Asia's largest economy.
This story is from the January 16, 2024 edition of The Straits Times.
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This story is from the January 16, 2024 edition of The Straits Times.
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