LABUHA-MALUT-ASWINNEWS.COM Member of Commission II DPRD South Halmahera (Halsel), Azis Jainal, urged the local government to immediately acquire land for the PLN Saketa Customer Service Unit (ULP) to support the development of electricity infrastructure.
He expressed this to Journalist aswinnews.com, Saturday, March 15, 2025.
According to him, the current location of PLN is no longer adequate because it has been operating since 1980 and is no longer able to accommodate the increasing need for electricity.
“We in the legislature will encourage the local government to immediately provide new land for PLN. The place currently being used is very old and is no longer suitable to support maximum service for the community.”
In addition to highlighting the urgency of land acquisition, Azis also emphasized the importance of increasing electricity capacity to overcome the crisis that is increasingly disturbing Gane residents, especially ahead of Ramadan. He said that for the past 15 days, the community has continued to complain about the increasingly intense rolling blackouts.
“We want to procure new machines with larger capacities. Currently, there are 10 diesel engines used for the Saketa ULP and if new machines are added, the required building will not be sufficient, so there needs to be an expansion of the PLN area to accommodate if there are additional machines. And currently the electricity generation of 10 diesel engines has a power performance of 1250 Kw which is clearly not enough to meet the needs of the community which continue to grow,” he said.
Furthermore, Azis invited all DPRD members from Electoral District (Dapil) III to play an active role in resolving this problem.
“We have six DPRD members in this electoral district, and I am sure all of them have the same commitment. This is not just a technical problem for PLN, but has become an urgent need for the community that must be solved immediately,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Manager of PT PLN (Persero) ULP Saketa, Fahrul Hutapel, confirmed that limited engine capacity was the main cause of the rolling blackouts. In addition to weather factors and difficult terrain conditions, the current electricity supply is not yet able to meet the demands of the community.
“If we had a machine with a larger capacity, the electricity supply could be more stable and the lights would stay on longer. However, currently we can only use a rotating system due to limited power,” explained Fahrul.
With this condition, the Halsel DPRD urged the local government to immediately take concrete steps in providing land for PLN and encouraging an increase in generating capacity to ensure a more stable and reliable electricity supply for the Gane community.
(Halsel Bureau/ Sukarsi).
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