Sumatra Blackout: Eddy Soeparno Calls for National Power System Review

According to Eddy, the widespread outage affecting over 13 million customers reveals serious vulnerabilities in the national power system that require immediate comprehensive evaluation. ‘I understand PLN is working hard to restore services, but such large-scale blackouts must not be treated as routine occurrences,’ Eddy stated on Sunday, 24 May 2026. He considers PLN’s explanation about severe weather and transmission disruptions at the 275 kV Muara Bungo and Sungai Rumbai substations in Jambi as a serious warning for national energy resilience. He specifically urged PLN to conduct a thorough audit of transmission network readiness, protection systems, and disaster and extreme weather risk mitigation measures. ‘We live in an era of climate change. Extreme weather will become more frequent. Therefore, national power infrastructure must have stronger backup and mitigation systems to prevent domino effects,’ he stressed. The University of Indonesia political science doctor also highlighted the significant social and economic impacts of the blackout, including disruptions to businesses, public services, communication networks, and household activities across Sumatra. He called for greater transparency from PLN regarding the root causes of the outage and concrete preventive measures. Additionally, Eddy urged the government and PLN to accelerate the modernisation of the national power grid using smart grid technology and strengthen regional interconnections to enhance system resilience against major disruptions. ‘This moment must serve as a national evaluation. Energy resilience is not just about having sufficient power supply, but also about system reliability during disruptions,’ concluded the member of the DPR’s XII Commission.