PLN: Sunday Blackouts Caused by Technical Problems

President Jokowi visits PLN Headquarters in Jakarta, Monday (5/8). (Photo: Rahmat/PR)

Massive power outage that hit Jakarta Greater and West Java were caused by technical issues, Acting President Director of state-electricity company PLN Sripeni Inten Cahyani has said.

According to her, the problem occurred in the 500 kilovolt extra-high voltage air transmission system of Ungaran-Pemalang in Central Java and the PLN have taken steps to resolve the issue. “We apologize for the slow response,” Sripeni said to President Jokowi during the President’s visit to PLN head office in Jakarta, Monday (5/8).

Sripeni added the repairing process should only take four hours; yet, it took much longer since all of the back-up power plants were in ‘cold start’ condition.

“The normalization (of electricity supply) apparently took longer than we expected, up to more than eight hours. This is because Suralaya power plant – which was supposed to be back-up supply – was in cold condition and it needs hours to warm up,” Sripeni explained.

Sripeni went on to say that there are two systems in the electricity system in Java-Bali, namely the north system and the south system with 2 circuits each, so there are a total of four circuits or four backbone networks with a capacity of 500 kilovolt.

“We admit that we did not anticipate the disruption in two circuits at once. This is what we will investigate later,” said Sripeni.

PLN has also publicly apologized for the blackout and the delay in the repairing process. (HIM / RAH / ES)

Translated by: Estu Widyamurti
Edited by: M. Ersan Pamungkas