Power Outages in Sumatra, PLN Urges Public Not to Panic

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – PT PLN (Persero) is currently conducting inspections related to a disturbance in Sumatra’s electricity system. A number of areas have experienced power outages, with North Sumatra among the affected regions. The disturbance there occurred since 18:44 WIB. Gregorius Adi Trianto, Executive Vice President for Corporate Communications and TJSL at PLN, said the company is working to restore supply. PLN has also urged the public to stay calm. “PLN urges the public to remain calm and not panic. Information on the handling of the outage will be provided periodically through the PLN Mobile application and the PLN 123 Contact Centre,” he said in a formal statement on Friday (22 May 2026). The teams are conducting thorough checks on the electrical system and network. The inspections aim to restore electricity supply while tracing the cause of the disturbance. “Currently PLN’s technical team has been deployed to the field to conduct thorough checks on the system and electrical network, in order to facilitate restoration and to trace the cause of the disturbance,” he explained. One of the reports on social media was from the account @yuuta__ who questioned the outage in Medan, Padang and Pekanbaru. “Medan is without power. Friends in the WhatsApp group suddenly message that the whole city from Medan to Binjai, Brandan, to Langsa are without power. What is happening?” he wrote. “Is this outage across Sumatra? Pekanbaru and Padang are also offline,” he added.