Revealed! The 2 Coal-Fired Power Plants That Caused Rolling Blackouts

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has finally revealed the two coal-fired power plants (PLTU) that experienced disruptions, causing recent rolling blackouts in several areas of Java. Acting Director General of Electricity at the Ministry of ESDM, Tri Winarno, stated that the affected plants were PLTU Cilacap Unit 1 with a capacity of 300 MW and PLTU Cilacap Unit 4 or 3A with a capacity of 1,000 MW. “PLTU Cilacap 1 and PLTU Cilacap 4. God willing, there are no more problems at the moment,” Tri said when met at the Ministry of ESDM in Jakarta, as quoted on Tuesday (23/6/2026). According to Tri, the disruptions at the two plants were primarily caused by maintenance factors, which temporarily affected their operations. Tri emphasised that his party regularly monitors the supervision of coal supply for power plants. However, the execution of procurement contracts falls under the authority of the respective companies. “We have monitoring, but we don’t know the details of the contracts. But now there have been improvements. PLN’s governance has started to improve,” Tri explained. He explained that the government has assigned coal mining companies to fulfil a Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) of 191 million tonnes. Meanwhile, PLN’s national coal requirement for power plants ranges between 152 million and 154 million tonnes per year. “So there is actually space, and that is followed up by PLN’s contracts. PLN’s contracts are already at 134 million tonnes. The scheduling issue is not under Minerba. But hopefully, this will be a valuable lesson going forward,” Tri said. Previously, President Director of PT PLN (Persero), Darmawan Prasodjo, revealed that the electricity system conditions, particularly in Java, have started to improve after rolling blackouts occurred in several areas last week. He stated that since Sunday, the Java electricity system has been recovering. “The rolling blackouts that occurred last week in Java, starting from yesterday Sunday, the system conditions in Java have improved, and the rolling blackouts have been successfully minimised. We apologise to the public for the inconvenience caused by these rolling blackouts,” Darmawan said at the State Palace in Jakarta on Monday (22/6/2026). He explained that the supply of primary energy that meets the specifications required by power plants, both owned by PLN and private Independent Power Producers (IPP), has started flowing again, thereby strengthening the resilience of the Java electricity system. Furthermore, two large power plants owned by PLN’s partners that previously experienced technical disruptions and were disconnected from the system are now in the process of recovery. One of the plants has been successfully repaired and synchronised with the Java electricity system as of Sunday night. “And there is good news from last night, one large power plant has been recovered and synchronised with the Java electricity system and has started supplying electricity to the Java system,” he said. Darmawan expressed appreciation to the government, particularly the Ministry of ESDM and Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, for the support, direction, and coordination provided during the electricity system recovery process. “We are also improving the governance of the primary energy supply chain and strengthening the power plants, both those owned by PLN and our partners, the Independent Power Producers. We are making all-out efforts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in monitoring and mapping all our efforts so that the reliability of the Java electricity system can be maintained and even improved,” he said.