This was disclosed by president director of PT PLN Dahlan Iskan on the sidelines of a seminar themed "The Function of Control for Legal Enforcement and Good Governance" in Denpasar on Thursday.
"We call the tower `Bali crossing` which will transmit electricity from Java to Bali with a capacity of up to 3,000 megawatts," he said.
He said that a very high tower would be needed to transmit electricity from the Paiton power plant in East Java, which has a capacity of thousands of megawatts to Bali.
"The construction of the tower will be started by the end of this year or early next year," he said.
Its feet only, Dahlan said, have the size of a soccer field with a lift in the middle, and the width of the upper part of the tower`s cable is 70 meters from one point to the other.
The large width will be made to prevent strong winds to cause the two cables to touch one another, considering that in the last 100 years the speed of the wind over the island paradise had reached 60 meters per minute.
The tower and its cables will be built to enable it to withstand very strong winds blowing up to 70 meters per minute.
"The tower will also be the pride of Bali, as it would be higher than the current highest in the world in People`s China, which is 370 meters high," he said.
He said that PLN will also team up with the forestry authorities in using the tower to help control the forests in Gilimanuk.
PLN also planned to build two under sea circuits with a technological capacity of 200 megawatts.
Dahlan also said the main reason to build the tower was that an undersea cable would not be too reliable because it would be too prone to current, especially that the current in the Bali strait is the strongest in Indonesia`s seas.
Experience in building nine undersea cables shows that only two were left, the rest was destroyed by the strong current, Dahlan said.
If everything goes well in overcoming the need for electricity, the need for electricity in Bali would be met in the next 25 years.
The various efforts in meeting the need of electricity including improvement and repair of damaged power plants and the leasing of 100 megawatts power plants would be abandoned.
"The power to be generated will reach 3,400 megawatts including 3,000 MW from the towers, 200 MW from the undersea cable, and 200 MW from the old undersea cable.
Right now power consumption in Bali reached 600 MW during peak load. PLN also planned to build more power plants in anticipation of undersea cables damage, he added. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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