Worst blackout in decades hit Jakarta, other parts of Java
Monday, August 5 2019 - 03:23 PM WIB
A massive power outage hit Jakarta, Banten, and West Java provinces on Sunday, affecting millions of people, banking services, internet services, manufacturers, and transportation services.
The blackout, which started at 11.50 a.m, and lasted for more than six hours, described by The Jakarta Post as the largest in more than two decades, disrupted commuter train services and mass rapid transportation (MRT) services. Shopping malls were forced to close early. In major cities, motorists had to endure long traffic jams. While electricity supply recovered starting at around six in the evening, some parts of West Java remained in the dark through midnight.
Bisnis Indonesia reported that manufacturers were also affected as their machinery could not run optimally despite electricity supply from own diesel generators. The paper quoted Fajar Budiyono, Secretary General of the Plastic, Aromatic, and Olefin Industry (Inaplas) as saying that without electricity supply from PLN, petrochemical plants have to be shut down, and would require three days to turn it on again.
State-owned electricity firm PT PLN said that it was still investigating the cause of the blackout. The utility said there was disruption in the Ungaran-Pemalang transmission line in Central Java, which then lead to another disruption in the Depok-Tasik transmission line in West Java.
“We’ll investigate further the cause of the disruption. This is pure technical problem,” said newly-appointed PLN Acting President Director Sripeni Inten Cahyani in a press conference Sunday.
Kontan quoted PLN Procurement Director Djoko R. Abumanan as saying that the utility was ready to provide compensation to customers as stipulated under Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No 27/2017.
Meanwhile, news portal detik.com reported that President Joko Widodo was scheduled to visit PLN’s headquarters Monday morning.
The Jakarta Post said that the Sunday power outage was most likely the worst since 1997 when the islands of Java and Bali experienced complete power outage for several hours. A partial blackout occurred in Java and Bali in 2008. (*)