In Reply to: Weather & Power now in Bali posted by Holladaze on Friday, 22. February 2008 at 16:00 Bali Time:
to reach parts of java because of the bad weather. One power station only has enough coal to last for the next 3 days.
An artical from the Jakarta Post :
Like Java, Bali may suffer its worst ever electricity shortages until the end of this month due to a sharp drop in power across the Java and Bali interconnected power grid, an official of the Bali branch of state-owned electricity company PLN said.
Hendra Saleh, the spokesman for PLN's Bali branch, said high waves in the Java Sea, triggered by storm Nicholas, which has traveled from Australia, had seriously affected the shipment of coal and diesel bound for power plants.
As a result, many power plants have been forced to lower output, causing a power deficit in the Java and Bali power grid, he said.
Hendra said PLN's central office had asked the Bali stations to cut output by 35 megawatts during the day and by about 70 megawatts at peak hours from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Partial blackouts are the unavoidable consequence of the electricity shortage, he said.
The blackouts will be rotated, with some areas denied electricity in the morning and others at night. The rotating power blackouts will last for two hours a day.
Tourist regions, including Nusa Dua, Kuta and Sanur, and security, health and commercial facilities will be exempted from the blackouts so as not to harm the image of the island.
"What can we say to the world if our resorts, full of five-star hotels, went suddenly dark at night. We would lose face," Hendra said.
He praised five-stars hotels in Bali for taking action to help with the shortage. The operators of the hotels had voluntarily cut off power connections to PLN and had begun to use their own power generators, he said.
Among the compliant hotels were the Four Season, Kayu Manis, Sheraton Lagoon and Radisson.
He said the hotels had helped to save around six megawatts. "It means a lot to PLN."
To avoid further worsening of the situation, residents have also been asked to cut down on electricity use in their homes, he said.
"Each household has to turn off at least two lamps to cope with the electricity shortage. If this is successful, we can avoid blackouts in the cities," he said Thursday.
He said the Bali office had also dispatched around 50 people comprising PLN officers and students to hand out pamphlets at street intersections in Denpasar, to inform people on how to save electricity.
A series of radio interviews were similarly conducted to reach those living outside main cities.
Bali has four major power plants located in Pesanggaran, Gilimanuk and Pemaron to meet its electricity needs. It receives additional power from Java via an interconnected power grid.
Chandra Sari Dewi, a resident living on Jl. Gatot Subroto in Denpasar, said she had told her family to turn off unused lights. "It is my contribution to save more electricity so that others who really need it will not experience blackouts," she told The Jakarta Post