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Having grown tired of waiting for the government to realize its promise to get electricity to their homes, the residents of Sumber Wuluh village in Lumajang district, East Java, took action and established their own hydroelectric power station to take advantage of their natural surroundings.

Their experiment with hydropower began in 1992 when Soetjipto, a local engineer, built a microhydroelectric power station at a nearby site on Sawur Mountain, using bits and pieces from other abandoned power plants in the area.

“It was not an easy task because there was always something wrong and I was also still learning how to develop the machines,” said Soetjipto, who has actually been tinkering with small-scale power plants for other villages since 1985.

But as a result, the Sawur Mountain generator has been successfully distributing electricity to 79 households for almost 20 years, using the flow of the Besuk Sumuk River. “And the water can still be used for irrigation,” Soetjipto said.

Arbaatun, 34, a local villager, said that before the power station was built, she was afraid of going outside at night.

“Of course, there were big differences at that time compared to now. We used lampu templok [a traditional oil lamp] at night, but now we can cook using the magic jar [rice cooker], iron our clothes using an electric iron and not charcoal, and for the kids it’s also easier to study,” she said. “So we are very lucky we can be like everyone else.”

Arbaatun said the villagers were generally happy with the power station although there was some trepidation when meters were installed to track the use of the electricity.

“It was quite chaotic at that time because most of the villagers thought the idea was just going to mean higher prices,” she said, adding that each household now pays about Rp 1.25 million ($125) per year for the service.

“It’s actually cheaper than using PLN [the state-owned power company] because we can pay it in installments,” she said.

Meanwhile, the district head of Lumajang, Masdar, said that hydropower was the only sensible solution for the area because of the surrounding mountains.

“There are still 200,000 people who do not have access to [electricity],” he said, adding “there are high expectations from the people to get electricity, that is why this microhydro station is very important.”