goodmorningpapua.com – PLN continues to fulfill its commitment to illuminate communities throughout the country, one of which is in Boldon Village, South Sorong Regency, West Papua. After 24 years of not receiving proper lighting, now villagers can enjoy electricity 24 hours a day.
Supplied directly from the Teminabuan electricity system sourced from the PLTD Komaulin, PLN by means of the PLN Customer Service Implementation Unit (UP3) Sorong together with the PLN West Papua Electricity Project Implementing Unit (UP2K) build two distribution substations with a capacity of 50 kVA and 25 kVA, respectively, medium voltage along 7.45 kms as well as 2.17 kms low voltage. The process taking approximately six months, finally managed to electrify 74 customers with a power of 900 VA.
A Head of the South Sorong Regency Village Community Empowerment Service, Yohan Bodori, expressed his appreciation for the synergy that had been carried out by PLN and the Head of Boldon Village. “Electricity services entering the village are significant. So in principle this is really based on the needs of the community. From now on, people will no longer feel darkness,” he said.
Previously, the community’s electricity needs only used generators managed by village administrators or privately owned. However, this is considered very heavy, because it has to pay quite a large amount of money. The community needs around IDR 100,000 to buy fuel for a generator that can only turn on the lights for three hours.
Meanwhile, a Head of Boldon Village, Thonce Maga, felt a great joy when the electricity was turned on in his village. The village, which was formed in 1998 due to this division, was finally able to feel electricity through various efforts made by many parties. While feeling the emotion, he revealed that the presence of PLN has a long story.
“The coordination we have conducted with the local government since 2016 has finally yielded good results for the community. Right at the end of 2021, PLN will start the process of building a network that can deliver electricity to our villages,” said Thonce.
The Manager of PLN’s Customer Service Implementation Unit (UP3) Sorong, Martha Adi Nugraha, explained that electrifying Kampung Boldon is a form of PLN’s commitment to assisting the community in carrying out activities, especially those that require electricity. Besides, this is also to support the improvement of people’s living standards, one of which is from the economic side. “We will continue to strive to continue to electrify villages that do not yet have electricity. Although it is not an easy thing, PLN will try to bring lighting to remote areas of the country. Thank you to all parties and the community who have helped us,” said Adi.
Not only focusing on lighting up villages, PLN also continues to improve the reliability of the electricity system in Papua and West Papua. Now, the electrification ratio in Papua and West Papua has reached 96.92 percent.