Minister Bahlil Denies Power Cuts Triggered by Coal Scarcity

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia has denied that power cuts affecting several areas on the island of Java, including Jakarta and Bandung, were caused by coal scarcity. He said efforts are being made to prevent further blackouts. “Until today, this evening I am also meeting with PLN to discuss this issue. The issue of scarce coal is not true, because our mandated allocation is already 170 million tonnes,” Bahlil said at the Presidential Palace complex on Thursday. According to him, the blackouts were purely due to problems with power generation machinery. On the occasion, Bahlil also confirmed that outages had indeed occurred. “It’s just that there are some troubles in several engines as conveyed by PLN and they will be resolved in the near future,” he said. “Yesterday there were indeed outages. Operations are not yet optimal, we are accelerating the recovery,” he replied. Bahlil further stressed that the government and PLN are striving to ensure there are no more rolling blackouts. “We are making efforts so that there will soon be no more outages,” he stated. Earlier, Energy Ministry spokesperson Dwi Anggia also denied that the blackouts were caused by dwindling coal supplies for PLN’s power plants. “There is definitively no thinning coal supply. There are indeed some technical disruptions. We have communicated with PLN to anticipate so this incident does not recur,” Anggia said at the Energy Ministry on Thursday. PLN had previously issued an official announcement regarding the outages through social media on Wednesday. At least 14 areas in West Java have been affected by rolling blackouts since yesterday.