"Flight and passenger services at the Soekarno-Hatta airport went on normally as our generators worked properly," said airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II`s corporate secretary, Hari Cahyono, in a press statement.
Hari reported that the airport has eight generators to back up priority services such as the flight safety technical network (including the radar, transmitter, tower and other areas) as well as operational services such as check-in, X-ray, baggage claim, flight information display system and so on.
"So, when the electricity distribution from PLN stopped at 1:18 pm, all the generators automatically worked to distribute electricity to the priority points," he revealed.
In the non-priority lanes, however, he admitted that there was no back-up electricity distribution. These include cargo terminals, tenants` kiosks and some lights, in addition to the air-conditioning system in the terminal.
"We apologize for the inconvenience," he added.
According to Hari, although electricity from PLN started flowing to the airport`s Main Power Station at 2:00 pm, it amounted to only 17 kilo volts (KV) of power.
He further explained that as the airport requires 20 KV of power, the electricity supply could not immediately be used.
Electricity supply to the airport reached 20 KVA at 2:32 pm, upon which it was immediately distributed to all facilities.
The airport consumes 35 mega volt amperes (MVA) of power every day, with 20 KV of this power supplied through the Batujaya substation in Tangerang.
There is a grand design to increase the capacity of the airport`s Main Power Station from 35 to 60 MVA.
PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk. earlier announced that the electricity problem had disrupted 14 flights from 1:10 to 3:40 pm.
Garuda spokesman Pujobroto said the flights were delayed by 5 to 60 minutes. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
