Another PLN Tower in Aceh Cut by Unknown People

BANDA ACEH, KOMPAS.com - Unknown people have cut a PLN (State Electricity Company) tower interconnecting the Aceh and North Sumatra power grids at Jambo Aye, North Aceh district, Aceh province, a PLN official said.

"The high-voltage tower was cut with saws but had not yet toppled and power supply to Aceh’s 4,6 million residents was not disrupted," Sulaiman, PLN’s general manager for the Aceh Region, told journalists here on Friday. "The tower had not yet toppled because the destructive action was discovered in time. Now the damage is being repaired."

It was the second PLN tower-cutting incident to have happened in Aceh in January 2012. In the first incident on January 7 in the Matang Seujuk region in Lhoksukon subdistrict, North Aceh district, the tower had already fallen down. As a result, there was a power outtage throughout Aceh province’s eastern coastal region.

Saleh called on the police to investigate the incidents and find the perpetrators. He also appealed to the local communities to help watch over the power transmission installations as the PLN itself did not have enough personnel to do so as there were too many towers and they were mostly located in remote and isolated spots.

On a line between Banda Aceh and the border with North Sumatra province alone there were 1,509 power transmission towers, and many of them were located far from the Banda Aceh-North Sumatra highway, he said.