Batam power outage: PLN says supply is back, gaps remain

PLN Batam says electricity has returned to all customers affected by the Batam power outage. Residents say some areas are still dark or losing supply on Tuesday, 13 October.

The outage began at 6.37am WIB on Monday, 12 October. By 4am on Tuesday, PLN said 98.8% of affected customers had power. That left 5,127 customers without supply.

This report draws on PLN Batam statements carried by Antara, Gokepri and Editor Indonesia, and on local reports.

What PLN Batam says

PLN Batam company secretary Rudi Antono issued a written statement on Tuesday. It said PLN had normalised all affected substations and transmission lines. It added that supply is back for all affected customers in Batam.

PLN’s figures at 4am were more precise, Gokepri reported. Some 406,083 of 411,219 affected customers had power again. By load, 496.7 MW of 501.8 MW was back.

Yoga Perdana Sulastama, PLN Batam’s communications manager, said one feeder at a distribution substation was still being repaired. All 11 affected substations were running again.

PLN gave an early indication of the cause. A wild animal may have entered the Sungai Harapan substation. PLN said the exact cause is still under investigation.

Compensation applies if the outage exceeded the service standard. Regular customers get 10% of the monthly load charge. Reliability-service customers get 15% to 25%. PLN said it applies the credit to the next bill automatically.

Where residents still report problems

Restoration was uneven. Yoga said PLN brought supply back in stages to keep the Batam-Bintan interconnection stable. Some blocks stayed dark, Gokepri reported.

In other areas, power repeatedly came on and went off, according to the same report. Batamnews also noted on Monday night that not every part of the restored districts had normal supply.

Water has lagged behind power. CNN Indonesia quoted a Batu Aji resident, who said lights were on by 6am but the water was still off.

On Tuesday, a resident told CJ.MY that Batu Ampar had lost supply again. CJ.MY has not yet had a comment from PLN Batam. Batamnews and CNN Indonesia listed Batu Ampar among the areas that regained power on Monday.

Hang Nadim airport also felt the outage. Its operator said check-in, lights, air conditioning and flight displays were affected. Flights kept running normally, the operator said.

PLN also denied a rumour of a planned three-day outage from 12 to 14 October. It asked residents to check its official channels before sharing such messages.