Police inspect Jambi transmission line after Sumatra mass blackout

Bareskrim Director for Particular Crimes Brig. Gen. Mohammad Irhamni said his team mobilized on Sunday to examine conductor failure at the transmission line, accompanied by personnel from the police forensics laboratory and State Electricity Company PT PLN.

“So far, we have not found indications of deliberate human action related to the severed conductor cables,” he remarked.

Irhamni made the remarks following the mass blackout reportedly affecting multiple provinces across Sumatra starting from 6:44 p.m. local time on Friday (May 22).

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia has ordered PLN to take measures to strengthen Sumatra’s backbone system, urging the development of new plants and the construction of 500 kV and 275 kV transmission lines.

He also called for enhancing electricity subsystems in each province to ensure resilience against future disruptions.

Meanwhile, PLN President Director Darmawan Prasodjo confirmed that the sweeping outage was caused by adverse weather.

He explained in a Saturday statement that the disruption impacted parts of the Sumatran transmission system, resulting in a drop in frequency due to the heavy load on power plants and triggering a domino effect of disruptions in several areas.

He also conveyed a public apology for the mass blackout and assured that PLN personnel were working swiftly to restore electricity in all affected regions.

As of 7 p.m. on Saturday, PLN has restored power access for more than 8.5 million of 13.1 million affected customers, recovering 3,431.21 megawatts of the total 5,334 MW disrupted capacity, supported by the restoration of 176 substations.

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Translator: Laily Rahmawaty, Tegar Nurfitra