PLN plans partial power blackout in Medan

State owned electricity company PLN plans to conduct a partial power black out in Medan and other parts of North Sumatra Sumatra beginning the middle of this month due to the decline in the power supply from the province’s existing power plants, Koran Tempo reported on Thursday.

Albert Pangaribuan, the general manager of PLN’s operation for North Sumatra and Aceh, said in Medan on Wednesday that the power blackout would be rotated from one to other areas under the partial blackout plan.

“The power blackout will be carried out twice a day. Customers will have no power supply for duration of three hours for each power cut,” he said.

The power supply in North Sumatra and Aceh continues to decline during the past several months due to the increase in the demand. “The power supply is getting worse in recent weeks due to the overhaul of PLN’s two power generators,” he said.

The two power generators were expected to be able to operate normally within the next few days but their operations would not be able to fully solve the power shortage problem because the power supply from other power plants were also declining, he said.

“We hope the rotating power blackout can be ended in November,” he added. (*)