Energy Ministry Demands PLN Restore Electricity Supply in Sumatra
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has demanded that PT PLN (Persero) ensure the electricity supply restoration process is conducted maximally and swiftly so that public activities can return to normal. Vice Minister of ESDM Yuliot Tanjung stated that together with the Ministry of State Secretariat and PT PLN, intensive coordination continues in addressing the power system disturbance that occurred in several regions of Sumatra on Friday, 22 May 2026.
“The ESDM Ministry, as regulator and supervisor of the electricity subsector, is giving serious attention to this blackout incident. We understand that this disturbance has caused inconvenience to the public and has impacted economic and social activities in the affected regions,” said Yuliot, as quoted from Antara on Sunday, 24 May 2026.
He also ensured that technical investigations are conducted thoroughly and comprehensively to determine the root cause of the disturbance and prepare mitigation measures so that similar incidents do not recur in the future.
Meanwhile, Acting Director General of Electricity Tri Winarno stated that the government continues to evaluate and monitor the recovery process to ensure electricity supply returns to being reliable and safe for the public. “In the early stage after the widespread blackout, we deployed teams of electricity inspectors to the field and will strengthen subsequent teams to conduct more intensive investigations to ensure such incidents do not happen again,” he said.
Tri added that in addition to the recovery process, Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia has directed the State Electricity Company to improve the reliability of Sumatra’s backbone system through the development of 500 kV/275 kV power plants and transmission infrastructure, and strengthen the reliability of subsystems in each province.
Furthermore, PLN also needs to prepare generation or blackstart infrastructure to accelerate recovery in the event of future disturbances. “The Energy Minister has directed us to ensure the acceleration of power plant development in the western Sumatra region so it can proceed smoothly,” said Tri.
For his part, PLN (Persero) President Director Darmawan Prasodjo apologised to the public for the disturbance that occurred and ensured that all field personnel work maximally to accelerate normalisation of the electrical system in the affected regions. “Since the incident occurred, all our personnel immediately mobilised to conduct assessments, recover the transmission and substation systems, and restart generators in a staged and coordinated manner,” said Darmawan.
He explained that preliminary indications suggest the disturbance originated from the 275 kV transmission system between Muara Bungo and Sungai Rumbai in Jambi, which is suspected to have been influenced by weather conditions. This disturbance then triggered cascading failures in Sumatra’s electrical system, affecting numerous power plants in various regions.
By Saturday, 23 May 2026 at 19:00 WIB, the recovery process continued to show significant progress. From a total of 13.1 million affected customers, more than 8.5 million customers had restored electricity supply.
Meanwhile, the system load that had been successfully recovered reached 3,431.21 MW from the total 5,334 MW previously affected. Additionally, all affected substations, totalling 176 units, had successfully returned to operation.