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State utility company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara has secured 160 megawatts of power from private producers, about 20 percent of the power it needs to cover outages caused by breakdowns in its generating plants nationwide, its president director said on Friday.

The ailing company is allowed to purchase power generated by independent power producers, or IPPs, following the implementation of a regulation by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry in November.

Dahlan Iskan, PLN’s new president director, said the company had secured 160 MW from several IPPs across the country for the first half of the year.

The supply will help PLN reduce a power deficit that stands at 724.2 MW nationwide, with badly affected areas including Greater Jakarta and Bali. The grid’s total capacity is 24,000 MW, but much of the company’s infrastructure is frequently out of use for maintenance.

“We are already receiving a supply of 35 megawatts of excess power from other companies,” Dahlan said after meeting with Vice President Boediono. “The total excess power that we could buy for the first semester reaches 160 megawatts.”

The regulation allows PLN to purchase power in Java and Bali at between Rp 656 ($0.07) per kilowatt hour and Rp 1,004 a kwh depending on the voltage.

The rates for PLN are set higher in remoter areas: by 20 percent for Sumatra and Sulawesi, 30 percent for Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara, and 50 percent in Maluku and Papua.

The prices mean PLN is likely to lose money on the purchases. Because of national electricity subsidies, the company is forced to sell electricity to households for an average of Rp 640 per kwh, while it costs the company around Rp 1,100 on average to produce power.

To help PLN cut generating costs, the head of the country’s “bottleneck ministry” on Friday promised that national coal-bed methane production, expected to begin in 2011, would be set aside to power PLN’s plants.

Coal-bed methane is a gas that exists naturally in coal deposits.

The announcement was made by Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of the Presidential Working Unit for Development Supervision and Control (UKP4), after a meeting with Energy Ministry officials.

Energy Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh said the government might offer more incentives for investors to develop coal-bed methane projects to provide the energy to PLN.

He did not elaborate.

“The main focus is how to cut PLN’s production costs,” Darwin said.