Blackout hits resort island, triggers traffic snarls

A power outage cut off electricity to 80 percent of Bali on Monday, creating traffic snarls and prompting complaints from the general public and the tourism industry.

The 30-minute blackout, which began at 9:13 a.m., was caused by a faulty relay in Kapal, Badung regency, that was damaged in last week’s magnitude-6.8 earthquake.

“One of the components in the relay station cracked in the earthquake, and it finally stopped working this morning,” Dadan Koerniadipoera, general manager of state electricity firm PT PLN’s Bali office, said on Monday.

He said the island’s northern areas, including Jembrana and Buleleng, had not been affected by the blackout because those areas did not receive electricity from the Kapal relay station, but from Gilimanuk generator, which produces 133 megawatts (MW).

The Kapal station relays electricity to South, East and West Bali, including Denpasar, Badung, Tabanan, Bangli, Klungkung and Karangasem.

Those regions’ total electricity requirements amount to 80 percent of the total capacity of the on-island power stations, or about 418 MW. There are 14 relay stations across Bali.

Dadan said that his office would check all relay stations in Bali after the blackout and apologized for the incident.

“We just discovered this damage during a regular maintenance [inspection]. We have never had this problem before. We are also anticipating damage in other stations due to the earthquake.”

He said Bali’s electricity grid was in relatively good condition. He said the capacity of the entire grid was between 650 to 690 MW, with a peak capacity of 540 MW.

“We have enough supply and are still able to receive new installations, except when there’s a problem like today,” Dadan said.

The biggest power station on the island is the 380 MW Celukan Bawang power station, followed by 281 MW Pesanggaran power station and a 220 MW power station in Java that supplies Bali through underwater cables. Next are the 147 MW Pemaron and the 133 MW Gilimanuk stations.

A major blackout has been planned for February to coincide with maintenance at Gilimanuk power station.

Monday’s blackout surprised local residents, many of whom had just begun their working day.

“We had to stop learning activities,” said Wirautama, a lecturer at a tourism college in Nusa Dua.

Utary, another resident, said the blackout had caused heavy traffic along Jl. Mahendradatta in Denpasar.

“Fortunately, a foreigner got out of his car and acted like a police officer, organizing the vehicles at the junction,” Utary said.

This year, PLN recorded that this was the second major recent incident involving the power grid after a the grid was disrupted last month when a large kite became entangled in electricity cables.

The blackout on Monday caused material and immaterial losses for the public and tourism businesses.

Made Sumantra from the Association Chief Engineers Bali said the losses could be calculated by counting the amount of fuel used to power emergency backup generators.

“In Bali, we still use diesel fuel, not gas, because there is no gas supply. Each generator usually needs 0.3 liters of diesel fuel per KWH [kilowatt hour].”

Made said each tourist accommodation facility, and star-rated hotels in particular, had backup generators. Generally, four- and five-star hotels have generators that can supply 100 to 125 percent of their total electricity needs. He added that each hotel had different electricity needs, depending on the size of the building and the number of rooms.

Perry Markus of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association in Bali added that electricity problems also affected the storage and preparation of food.