Batam-Bintan Blackout Leaves Tanjungpinang Residents with Rotating Power Cuts

A total power outage, or blackout, in Batam, Riau Islands, has also affected Bintan Island, including Tanjungpinang. To maintain electricity services amid limited supply, state-owned electricity company PT PLN is switching power on in rotation, relying on generating units that remain operational.

Rully Agus Widanarto, head of PLN’s Customer Service Implementation Unit (UP3) in Tanjungpinang, said the area currently relies on two diesel power plants (PLTD): PLTD Suka Berenang and a plant in Air Raja subdistrict. Together, they have a maximum capacity of 32 megawatts (MW).

That capacity is far below Bintan Island’s electricity demand of 80 to 100 MW per day. PLN is therefore distributing power to residents in shifts.

“Average daily electricity consumption on Bintan Island reaches 80–100 megawatts, so we are trying to maximise the available capacity to serve residents in turns, for six hours at a time,” Rully said in Tanjungpinang on Tuesday (13 October 2026).

With supplies constrained by the Batam-Bintan blackout, PLN is prioritising electricity for vital facilities, including hospitals. The measure is intended to prevent outages from disrupting healthcare services.

Rully explained that the electricity system disruption in Batam, which began on Monday morning (12 October 2026), was triggered by several generating units going offline. As a result, the other plants were unable to carry the excessive load.

The disruption then affected Bintan because Batam is the island’s main electricity supplier. Although several plants in Batam began recovering gradually on Monday evening, supplies to Bintan could not return to normal because the system frequency remained unstable.

“Until last night, electricity in Batam had not fully recovered either. Power was going on and off until morning,” he said.

Prolonged outages have also affected residents in several parts of Bintan Regency, particularly Kijang and Tanjung Uban. Rully apologised to residents who had continued to be affected from Monday morning through Tuesday.

He said the two diesel plants operating in Tanjungpinang could not yet provide a solution for supplying the whole of Bintan. The relatively long distance poses a risk of low or unstable voltage if electricity is transmitted across the island.