Electricity Not Just for Light
The massive power outage on Sunday came as a surprise for many because it affected almost all of West Java, Greater Jakarta, Banten and parts of Central Java.
In addition to the large expanse of the affected areas, the outage lasted a long time, more than six hours. In fact, some regions experienced a rolling blackout on Monday.
Although the outage occurred on a weekend and during the day, the majority of people in the affected areas were unable to do anything. In modern society, electricity does not just provide light. Electricity is a necessary part of modern life and supports all activities in society.
Various household appliances depend on electricity, including rice cookers, water dispensers, water pumps and refrigerators. For some urban people, these appliances are basic needs and not secondary needs.
Activities outside the home and almost all public services depend heavily on electricity. From the very moment of leaving home, Jakarta’s transportation system relies on electricity. The most basic example is its traffic signal system.
Traffic lights will not function without power; without them, congestion forms everywhere. The railway services stop automatically, both the Commuter Line electric trains and the MRT Jakarta, which runs underground in some areas. With no operating reserves available, it is not just transportation that is affected, and it also poses a risk to public safety.
The same can be said for the telecommunications sector. Almost all mobile phone services, both mobile data and phone networks, were offline or disrupted. Last Sunday virtually became a gray day for most people, especially in urban areas. Almost all activities were disrupted, even paralyzed.
It is unimaginable if the outage had occurred during a workday. Government agencies and services would have experienced a shutdown. The economic impact would be immeasurable. Almost all production and trade would be disrupted, as all business activities depend on electricity. Shopping center management would be pleased because the sudden influx in the number of visitors would seem a blessing at first. However, many non-cash payment methods would not function. Many automated teller machines (ATMs) would go offline. Hotels would enjoy high occupancy rates and restaurants would see many customers, but they would struggle to serve their guests without electricity.
Medium and large businesses could use portable generators, although they would have to bear additional costs, especially high-rise shopping malls and hotels that must operate escalators and elevators. Unlike the many medium and large businesses that could still operate, many small businesses would have to close because they do not have a backup power supply.
From this simple illustration, it is clear that all parties realize that electricity is an energy source that is vital to people\'s lives. Electricity is not just about economic activities, but also concerns public safety, and even the resilience of a country. That society can be easily paralyzed because of an electricity shortage poses a high risk to the country\'s sovereignty.
Thus, in taking a step towards evaluation, providing compensation is not enough. However much state electricity company PLN provides as compensation, it will certainly not be proportional to the socioeconomic losses incurred to the people.
Moreover, PLN as a company also suffered significant losses as a result of the outage. To illustrate, PLN has an output capacity of about 22,000 megawatts (MW) per hour to power Greater Jakarta (Jabodetabek), West Java and Banten. However, because of the disruption, it could only supply 13,000 MW per hour. This means lost sales of up to 9,000 MW. If the outage lasted 10 hours, PLN could potentially lose 90,000 MW in sales. Assuming an average rate of Rp 1,000 per kilowatt hour (kWh), the potential losses for PLN could reach Rp 90 billion. This does not include the various operational and maintenance costs it would bear to repair the damage to its network and transmission systems.
Therefore, the most important thing is the effort to maintain a reliable and stable electricity supply. Blackouts are a drastic reduction in the power supply caused by a network disruption through a problem in transmitting or generating power.
Thorough evaluation must be conducted into the reliability of both the transmission system and power stations, including correcting the gap between the power generated and its distribution to customers.
According to PLN\'s explanation, the western regions of Java dominate electricity distribution with 13,000 MW, while the 20,000 MW power plants are located in the eastern regions of Java.
The prolonged blackout that affected many areas has raised many questions among ordinary citizens and businesspeople. Moreover, PLN has a sophisticated digital monitoring system that should be able to provide early warning on power outages.Indonesia should not just depend on power plants that are all located in the same area. The power supply must be channeled proportionately through a reliable transmission system. Of course, it is not only PLN’s duty to provide improvements, but also the duty of relevant ministries, especially the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.
Electricity is a vital infrastructure and one of the main factors in the ease of doing business. In addition to supplying energy, electricity is also an important part of determining competitiveness, especially for power-hungry industries like the textile industry, which has been among the biggest past contributors to exports. But many textile producers have gone bankrupt because they could not compete with imported products.
ENNY SRI HARTATI, Senior Researcher, Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef)