ADB provides loan to help 
power growth in Bali

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help bring more reliable and affordable electricity to Bali with a US$224 million loan for a transmission project that will connect rural households to the grid and help power the tourism industry.

“A more reliable power supply should allow greater growth in the industrial and commercial sectors, particularly in tourism, which should in turn create jobs, especially for low-income groups,” Aruna Wanniachchi, senior energy specialist in ADB’s Southeast Asia department, said in an official release Wednesday.

The current electrification ratio in Bali is 69 percent, with the commercial sector accounting for about 46 percent of total energy consumption on the island. State-owned electricity company PLN relies mainly on expensive and polluting diesel-based generation to supply electricity in Bali.

The Java-Bali 500-kilovolt (kV) Power Transmission Crossing Project will help transmit power from Java to Bali using 220 kilometers of extra-high voltage lines with the capacity to transmit 1,500 megawatts (MW) of power. It will also extend a 500/150 kV substation in East Java and construct a new 500/150 kV substation in Antosari, Bali, as well as upgrade 11 150/20 kV substations.

The project is expected to benefit Bali’s entire population of 4 million, of which 20 percent are below the national poverty line. The development of substations along the transmission line will ensure improved access to local rural communities in the project area.

The Java-Bali system is currently linked by two 150 kV undersea cables with a total capacity of 200 MW, with another two undersea cables being installed by PLN to add an additional 200 MW by 2014. The Java-Bali project will build an overhead transmission line crossing involving two towers that will be the world’s tallest power pylons. An overhead crossing was chosen because of its reduced environmental and social impacts and the higher costs involved with undersea cables and their installation.