19-Hour Blackout in North Sumatra: Power Still Out in Several Medan Areas

A widespread power outage affecting several provinces on Sumatra Island—including North Sumatra—was being restored gradually after an outage that began on Friday night (22 May) at around 18:44 Western Indonesian Time (WIB). However, by Saturday afternoon (23 May) power in several areas of the city of Medan was still out. It has been more than 19 hours since the initial outage, but electricity supplies in several areas have not yet returned to normal. The condition is disrupting residents’ activities, with some forced to leave their homes to seek places with electricity supply. Andri, a resident of Jalan Jermal, Medan Denai District, said the electricity at his home had not come back on by Saturday afternoon. He and his family chose to temporarily relocate to the office to charge their mobile phones and emergency lights. “The power hasn’t come back on. We had to go to the office to charge our phones and emergency lights,” said Andri. Similar complaints were voiced by Hendri, a resident of Medan Tembung. Because the power had not yet flowed, he was forced to leave his home to find a place with energy supply to charge his phone. “The lights have not been on so far. He was forced to leave his home to find a cafe with power to charge his phone,” he said. In Medan Perjuangan district, Donni, a resident of Jalan M Yakub, said the outage is making it difficult to meet basic family needs as it also affects the supply of clean water at home. “Since last night the power has been off. It has been more than 19 hours. The power is off and the water is off as well. I even bathed at a mosque; I don’t know where to find water,” he said. A similar situation affected Iwan, a resident of Jalan Puri, Medan Area. Because the electricity and water at his home had not come back on, he decided to move to a relative’s house. “From last night until now, the electricity is still off. The water at our home is also off. Therefore, we immediately moved to a relative’s place where the power is on,” he said. Separately, the Manager of Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility and Environment (TJSL) at PLN (Persero) UID North Sumatra, Darma Saputra, said they apologised for the power disruption in several areas of Sumatra. “PT PLN (Persero) apologises for the power disturbance that occurred in Sumatra on Friday (22 May) at 18:44 WIB. We understand the inconvenience experienced by customers and are committed to restoring electricity supply gradually and reliably,” he said. According to PLN’s tracing, the outage was triggered by an issue in the 275 kV Muara Bungo-Sungai Rumbai transmission line due to severe weather affecting the electrical system in several areas of Sumatra, including North Sumatra. However, he said that by Saturday (23 May) at 10:00 WIB, 199 feeders out of 540 affected feeders had been restored. “PLN continues to accelerate normalisation so that electricity supply in the affected areas can quickly return to customers,” said Darma. Meanwhile, beyond North Sumatra, power outages affected residents from Riau to Aceh. PLN’s President Director, Darmawan Prasodjo, said that 8.3 million out of 13.1 million electricity customers in several Sumatra regions who had experienced outages on Friday night had now recovered. The figure was recorded on Saturday (23 May) at 10:00 WIB. “As of Saturday (23 May) at 10:00 WIB, more than 8.3 million customers were back on electricity out of 13.1 million affected,” he said. “Since the outage began on Friday (22 May) at around 18:44 WIB, PLN immediately began inspections and restoration of the electrical system. Initial indications suggested the outage was caused by severe weather, which subsequently affected parts of Sumatra’s electrical system. The weather condition caused disruption to the 275 kV Muara Bungo-Sungai Rumbai high-voltage transmission corridor at Muara Bungo and Sungai Rumbai in Jambi. He said that by Saturday (23 May) at 10:00 WIB, more than 3,192 MW of electricity had been delivered from a total of 5,334 MW that were affected. Additionally, 157 of 176 substations had returned to operation. Thus, a total of 8,351,670 affected customers had also regained electricity supply,” he said. “At present, all PLN staff and technical teams are working around the clock in the field. The recovery process is ongoing and we are all-out to ensure electricity supply to the public can be restored gradually and safely,” added Darmawan.