Bareskrim Names Five Suspects in Batam Power Outage Case

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — The Directorate of Certain Crimes at the Indonesian National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim Polri) has named five people as suspects in the widespread blackout in Batam and the Bintan Islands on Monday, 12 October 2026. The decision followed the collection of evidence and a case review into the power disruption at Sei Harapan Substation in Batam City.

Bareskrim’s Director of Certain Crimes, Brigadier General Moh. Irhamni, confirmed that the suspects comprise four PLN Batam employees and one private contractor. The four PLN Batam employees are identified by the initials RB, ZR, DA and AWD, while the contractor is identified as AEP. He said the designation was based on evidence and suspected negligence in upholding electricity safety.

“Following the investigation and the sufficiency of the evidence, and after the case review, investigators have named five people as suspects in this case,” Irhamni said in a Bareskrim Polri press release on Tuesday, 20 October 2026.

The investigation was formally upgraded under Police Report No. LP/A/121/X/2026/SPKT.DITTIPIDTER/BARESKRIM POLRI, dated 16 October 2026. The widespread outage caused losses, with estimated customer compensation totalling Rp57,315,057,160.

“The suspects were named on the basis of examinations and evidence obtained by investigators, not solely because of a person’s position or status,” he added.

As part of the investigation, Bareskrim investigators questioned 25 witnesses and consulted criminal-law and forensic laboratory experts. They also seized technical evidence, including CCTV DVR equipment from Sei Harapan Substation, three 50-centimetre sections of R, S and T phase conductors, three pairs of 20 kVA busbar plates, three sections of Buchholz pipe, and one tripping lockout relay set.

“Based on the facts established in the investigation, the application of Article 319 of the Criminal Code has an adequate evidentiary basis and is sufficiently strong to be maintained as a suspected criminal offence under investigation,” Irhamni said.

The suspects have been charged under Article 319 of Law No. 1 of 2023 on the Criminal Code and Article 51 in conjunction with Article 44 of the Electricity Law. The offences carry a maximum prison sentence of 12 years.

Investigators identified three main indications of unlawful conduct: physical damage to Transformer 1, an actual disruption to the public electricity supply, and an alleged failure to act after wildlife-protection facilities were deactivated and not restored.

“The focus of the evidentiary process includes the alleged failure to fulfil electricity safety obligations, its connection to the disruption at the installation, and the resulting interruption to power supplies and impact on the public,” he said.

PLN Batam responds

PLN Batam President Director Kwin Fo previously said the outage began with a flashover at a transformer at Sei Harapan Substation. The circuit breaker (CB), which should have isolated the fault, failed to open as intended, allowing the disruption to spread to the main 150-kilovolt (kV) transmission system.

“Based on the technical investigation, the disruption began with a flashover at a transformer at Sei Harapan Substation. The circuit breaker (CB), which should have isolated the fault, failed to open as intended, allowing the disruption to spread to the main 150-kilovolt (kV) transmission system,” he said, according to a company statement on Monday, 19 October 2026.

“The disruption caused a power plant in Tanjung Uncang, with capacity of around 220 megawatts (MW), to disconnect from the system. The loss of a large amount of supply caused other power plants to experience load imbalances and disconnect as well, leading to a widespread blackout at 06:37 Western Indonesian Time (WIB),” he explained.

Kwin said PLN Batam promptly inspected and isolated the fault, then gradually rebuilt the electricity system. By 22:00 on Monday, around 60% of customers in Batam had had their electricity restored.

By 01:00 on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, power had returned to almost all customers in Batam, although work to restore several generating units continued.

Electricity supply to Bintan was fully restored at 18:30 on Wednesday, 14 October 2026. Power transfers via undersea cables were carried out gradually once Batam’s system was stable and had sufficient reserve capacity.

“Restoration to Bintan was based purely on technical considerations, not on different service priorities. We had to ensure that Batam’s system was sufficiently stable before transferring power to avoid triggering another widespread disruption,” Kwin Fo said.

He acknowledged that the explanation could only be provided after PLN Batam teams had spent three days prioritising the restoration of the electricity system to ensure that supplies to the public could return to normal.

“We offer our sincerest apologies to all customers and members of the public. From the outset, all PLN Batam teams worked day and night, focusing primarily on restoring the Batam-Bintan electricity system,” Kwin Fo said.