PLN Confirms All Main Substations in West Sumatra Have Been Re-Energised After Power Outage

West Sumatra’s Distribution System Unit (UID) announced that all main substations in Sumatra Barat have been energised following a disturbance to the electricity system that caused a power outage. PLN is endeavouring to restore the power system in West Sumatra in full.

‘As of 05:00 WIB, 60 percent of the system has been restored and we are continuing to work to bring it to a full 100 percent,’ said Ajrun Karim, General Manager of PLN UID Sumbar, as quoted by Antara on Saturday (23 May 2026).

Although 21 substations have been energised, 175 feeders out of 394 remain offline. The feeders are spread across Padang City, Padang Pariaman Regency, Tanah Datar Regency, Pasaman Regency, Pasaman Barat Regency, Limapuluh Kota Regency, Payakumbuh City, Padang Panjang City, Solok, Solok Selatan, Sijunjung Regency and Dharmasraya Regency.

PLN local units say restoration of the electrical system to normal as soon as possible. PLN also emphasised that West Sumatra is safe, particularly for low and medium voltage networks.

However, field personnel are still working to normalise several feeders. ‘All main substations are energised; it is just a matter of loading at each feeder point,’ he said.

Regarding the main cause of the outage in West Sumatra on Friday (22 May) night around 18:44 WIB, PLN has not yet been able to detail further. However, the preliminary suspicion is that the disturbance originated from Jambi Province.

In addition to West Sumatra, outages also occurred in Aceh, North Sumatra and Riau.

Since the disturbance occurred, PLN immediately deployed technical teams to inspect the entire electrical system and network and to trace the cause of the fault.

Finally, PLN urged the public to remain calm and not panic. Information on handling the outage will be provided periodically via the PLN Mobile app and the PLN 123 contact centre.

Meanwhile, Asna, a resident of Bukittinggi, said power had been restored between 01:00 and 03:00 WIB. She hopes the situation returns to normal fully.

‘At 01:00 a.m. I checked the power wasn’t on, but at 03:00 WIB the power was on,’ she said.