Five People Named as Suspects over Batam Power Outage: What Happened
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — The Criminal Investigation Department’s Directorate of Certain Crimes (Dittipidter) has named five people as suspects over the widespread power outage that affected Batam and Bintan on Monday, 12 October 2026.
The electrical-system disruption at the Sei Harapan substation began with a bang at 06.28 WIB and led to a total interruption of power supply at 06.36 WIB.
Brigadier General Moh. Irhamni, director of Dittipidter, said the disruption began with a bang caused by a short circuit in Transformer 1. He said the five suspects—four PT PLN Batam staff members and one contractor—were named on the basis of the investigation and sufficient evidence.
“Following the investigation and the availability of sufficient evidence, and after a case review, investigators have named five people as suspects in this case. Four PT PLN Batam staff members, identified by the initials RB, ZR, DA and AWD, are suspected of negligence, along with one external party, a contractor identified by the initials AEP,” Irhamni said in an official statement, quoted on Wednesday, 21 October 2026.
The sequence of events began when an operator at the Sei Harapan substation heard a bang at 06.28 WIB, originating from a short circuit in Transformer 1. Eight minutes later, at 06.36 WIB, the electrical system in Batam and Bintan suffered a total blackout, directly affecting residents’ activities.
“On Monday, 12 October 2026, at around 06.28.59 WIB, an explosion was heard at the Sei Harapan substation in Batam. Based on the initial examination, the bang is suspected to have been associated with a short circuit in Transformer 1,” he said.
Power restoration was carried out in stages using black-start procedures from 08.00 WIB, under the direction of the dispatcher at the Batam Command Centre in Baloi. During an inspection of the site on 14 October 2026, investigators found a melted area on Transformer 1’s 150 kV bushing and a live monkey with burn injuries near the installation.
“PT PLN Batam’s initial account was that at around 11.32 WIB on 12 October 2026, signs of melting were found on the 150 kV bushing of Transformer 1. At the same time, PLN staff also found a live monkey near Transformer 1 with burn injuries,” he said.
The further investigation found that the protection circuit had failed to isolate the fault. It also found that wildlife-protection equipment had been disabled and not reinstated after construction work on Transformer 3 in April 2026. After examining 25 witnesses, seizing evidence and estimating customer compensation at Rp57,315,057,160, investigators formally advanced the case to the investigation stage through a police report dated 16 October 2026.
“The focus of the investigation is whether electricity-safety obligations were not met, how this related to the disruption at the installation, and the resulting power cut and its impact on the public,” he said.
PLN Batam responds
Earlier, PLN Batam president director Kwin Fo said the blackout began with a flashover at a transformer at the Sei Harapan substation. The circuit breaker (CB), which should have isolated the fault, did not open as it should have, 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 the Sei Harapan substation. The circuit breaker (CB), which should have isolated the fault, did not open as it should have, allowing the disruption to spread to the main 150-kilovolt (kV) transmission system,” he said, according to a company statement quoted on Monday, 19 October 2026.
“The disruption caused a power plant at Tanjung Uncang, with capacity of about 220 megawatts (MW), to disconnect from the system. The loss of a large amount of supply caused other power plants to become unbalanced and disconnect as well, leading to a widespread outage at 06.37 WIB,” he said.
He explained that PLN Batam immediately inspected and isolated the fault, then gradually rebuilt the electricity system. By 22.00 WIB on Monday, around 60% of customers in Batam had had their power restored.
By 01.00 WIB on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, power had been restored to almost all Batam customers, although work to bring several generating units back online continued.
Power supply to Bintan was fully restored on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, at 18.30 WIB. The transfer of electricity through the undersea cable was conducted in stages once the Batam 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 stable enough before transferring power to avoid triggering another widespread disruption,” Kwin Fo said.
He acknowledged that the explanation could only be provided after the entire PLN Batam team had spent three days prioritising restoration of the electricity system to ensure that power supply to the public returned to normal.
“We offer our sincerest apologies to all our customers and the public. From the outset, the entire PLN Batam team worked day and night with the primary focus of restoring the Batam-Bintan electricity system,” Kwin Fo said.