Java-Bali Sea Cable to be Fully Operational in Juni

Jakarta (Antara) - State-owned electricity firm (PT. PLN)'s target was that the submarine power transmission cable project that connects Java and Bali islands becomes fully operational by the end of June 2014. The electricity's Java-Sumatra-Bali Director of Operations Ngurah Adnyana said here on Monday the cable was capable of transferring up to 200 MW of electrical power from Java to Bali, which will reduce fuel consumption in Bali. "Once the sea cable becomes operational, the fuel saving in Bali over two semesters was estimated to be about 54 thousand kiloliters," Adnyana said. The sea cable valued at 450 billion Rupiah was already installed on the seabed, but other construction work was still being completed, Adnyana added. The electric cable project that was built by the Sumitomo Corporation was an additional cable of what had been operated earlier. Besides the submarine cable, the state's electricity firm was also planning the construction of the Java-Bali above-the-sea power cable with an estimated investment value of Rp3 trillion. The above-sea-cable project would be able to supply up to 1,600 MW of electricity from Java to Bali and will connect the Paiton Power Plant in East Java to Bali along 325 kilometers. Currently, status of some of the structures in the project, which was funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), was at the re-tendering stage. Adnyana also added that the PLN will soon operate a 3x100 MW Celukan Bawang coal-fueled power plant that will replace the fuel powered power plant in Bali. Currently, the peak load in Bali had reached approximately 700 MW. The load was largely sustained by the fuel power plant with an estimated fuel consumption of about 600 thousand kiloliters per year. (*)