The Story of Kilion Manggara in Cracking the Dark in East Indonesia

JAKARTA - His name is Kilion Manggara, a retired elementary school teacher. Together with the villagers, they succeeded in electrifying the village through Solar Power Plant (PLTS) constructed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR).

"When visiting the neighboring village, on one night several years ago, Kilion Manggara stunned. The Arefu Village he visited was bright, but his own village, Amdui Village in Raja Ampat District, West Papua was completely in the dark. No electricity lightning in the village," published the President Joko Widodo in his Facebook account, Sunday (1/14).

Arriving back to his house, Kilion Manggara wrote a letter sent to the Energy Service of Raja Ampat District. "I was so concerned seeing the villagers living in the dark," said Kilion Manggara as written by the President Joko Widodo.

Fortunately, the editorial team of www.esdm.go.id had an opportunity to directly listen to the true story of Kilion Manggara during the inauguration of PLTS in Amdui Village on August 21st, 2017. "I wrote a letter by my own hand. I visited the Head of the Village at 7 p.m. and I said to him that I was so concerned about the villagers living in the dark all the time. Finally, he signed the letter I wrote, we sent it, and we waited," explained Kilion passionately to the team led by Dadan Kusdiana who was the Head of Communications, Public Information Services, and Cooperation Bureau represented the Vice Minister of EMR.

That was the time when the action and the idea of Kilion and his Head of the Village was noticed by the Government in Jakarta. Ministry of EMR finally materialized Killion and the villagers' dream by constructing a Centralized PLTS. "We were so excited, Amdui Villagers took part in constructing the PLTS. The people assisted to build a fence surrounding the PLTS," wrote the President Jokowi.

Now, Amdui Village has been electrified by Centralized PLTS in capacity of 30 kWp electrifying 130 households in 103 houses. So, every house enjoy electricity approximately for 600 watt hour per day. The Centralized PLTS in Amdui Village is one of the program of Ministry of EMR through the Directorate General of New, Renewable Energy, and Energy Conservation (Ditjen EBTKE) constructed about 2,5 months ago by PT Industri Telekomunikasi dan Informasi (PT INTI Persero) and has been operated since July 27th, 2017. The Amdui Villages have also been trained by PT INTI team to conduct a regular maintenance.

It is Kilion Manggara, who cracked the dark and enlightened one of the most beautiful village in East Indonesia.

Foto Caption: Killion Manggara is the one wearing yellow t-shirt in the far left. (AK)

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