By: Masayu Yulien Vinanda

Subang (27/07)-Self-sufficiency regarding electricity through Microhydro Power Plant installation has been implemented in some villages in Indonesia. If previously the micro hydro power plant installation aimed to supply electricity to villages which had not been illuminated by electricity, now microhydro powerplant has been able to enhance self-sufficiency in some villages. For instance mycrohydro power plant Cinta Mekar located in Subang subdistrict, West Java.

The power plant dedicated on April 17 2004, was built at UN-ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) fund which donated 75 thousands US $. Another half of the cost was donated from Hidropiranti, Ltd.. People Centered Economic and Business Institute (Ibeka) had also donated the same amount for dissemination and training facility effort.

Cinta Mekar local community were totally involved since the 120 kilowatt-capacity mycrohydro project been started. Ibeka foundation gave assistance in conducting social of society activities. Ibeka’s social team did the preparation starting from data recording to organization formation, capacity and ownership building.
“Community-based microhydro power plant technically not only has to be well designed, but also it should have added values and properly maintaned. The success of microhydro power plant depends on the ablity of local institution and organization and the huge benefits of its added values,” Ir. Iskandar, Ibeka expert staff explained.

This community-based microhydro powerplant system been successfully adopted by Cinta Mekar microhydro power plant (PLTMH). The local people involved in the whole management process, forming the organization and designing customer claim pattern.

All electricity produced is exported to PLN (State-owned Electricity Company), and sold for 432 rupiahs per Kwh. After been operating for 5 years , the micro hydro power plant earns 25 milions per month. It resulted from the production rate 100 KWx24 hoursx25 daysx 432 rupiahs minus depretiation, operational, and maintanance cost. The monthly net profit reaches 10 millions rupiahs.

The Cinta Mekar economic enterprise (Koperasi) managed the allocation of village revenue. It is allocated for education, scholarship, health, investment, village infrastructure, village management and economic enterprise operational cost. For those who can’t afford the installation cost might get their house electricity-installed for free. The rest get discount , some get 75 percent and so on, depending on their financial capacity. All the process of decision making for instance revenue allocation or financial capacity classification are determined by the community conference.

The involvement of Cinta Mekar community in microhydro powerplant management has proved its capacity to maintain the existence of Cinta Mekar microhydro powerplant as well as improve Cinta Mekar village autonomy. Community-based mycrohydro power plant system adopted by Cinta Mekar should be possible to be immitated by our government or other institution who are planning to develop microhydro power plant.