You would assume it is easy….. to connect to electricity in a growing tourist destination where the government has commissioned, and budgeted for, large infrastructure improvements. Well, maybe not in Indonesia.

Gerupuk 2 years ago was a very different place. Running an air conditioner or a water pump for any extended period was wishful thinking and regular black-outs would leave the village without power for hours at a time, on an almost daily basis. Power lines hung on trees and “do it yourself” connections were common.

It isn’t possible in this short article to communicate the blocked doors that both NTB Capital, and others in the community faced to get a result for this forgotten village.

When we originally approached PLN for our connection to Ebuak Bay, their proposal involved NTB Capital paying the full installation costs of almost 200 million Rp worth of electrical infrastructure. Two years later things are much better with government installed power poles and consistent power supply, but not before months of persistent lobbying and negotiating by Kartini and Franky.