‘Customers suffered’: President Jokowi reprimands state utility PLN after massive blackout

Indonesia President Joko Widodo. Photo: AFP
Indonesia President Joko Widodo. Photo: AFP

President Joko Widodo this morning visited the headquarters of PLN following yesterday’s massive blackout that affected the provinces of Banten, West Java and Jakarta (many areas of which still haven’t recovered power) to voice his displeasure at the state power utility.

“I know that this can hurt the reputation of PLN. But outside of PLN, many, including customers, suffered,” Jokowi said to PLN directors during a meeting, as quoted by Kompas.

“[It affected] public transportation, like the MRT, which is dangerous. That’s why, this morning, I want to hear [an explanation about the blackout] from you directly.”

Jokowi also said he wanted assurances from the PLN directors that no blackouts of such magnitude would ever happen again.

Previously, PLN blamed the massive outage on disruptions at several major power plants in Java. The blackout affected around 30 million people living in the Greater Jakarta Area and tens of millions more in the Western half of Java.

The power outage occurred just before noon yesterday and power was restored in most parts of the capital around 12 hours after that. During that time, there were numerous disruptions to public services, such as Jakarta’s electric-powered MRT, as well as sporadic disruptions in cell phone coverage. Residents flocked to and crowded many of the capital’s malls, which were among the few businesses that had back up generators and were able to operate normally.

Today, as confirmed in a tweet by PLN, certain parts of the Greater Jakarta Area have been scheduled to be hit with rolling blackouts — each lasting around three hours — as PLN attempts to get its power plants working normally again.

PLN has said that it will look into giving compensation to customers and businesses affected by the blackout, as required by law. However, the state utility says it will first have to carry out an internal investigation into the blackout, which would take around three months. Initial estimates put PLN’s financial losses from the blackout at around IDR90 billion (US$6.3 million). 

 



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