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wo years after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched the “blackout-free Indonesia” campaign in Mataram, he will return to the electricity outage-plagued province.

Rotating power blackouts, occurring for long periods of time, continued to occur in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), over the past week.

The situation could embarrass local officials when Yudhoyono arrives on his scheduled visit Mataram on Friday.

In July 2010, the President stood with the then managing director of state electricity firm PT PLN, Dahlan Iskan, and proclaimed that NTB was free from outages.

In Mataram on Monday, NTB provincial spokesman Tribudi Prayitno said that steps were being taken to ensure there would be no disruption to electricity supplies for the visit.

“We have sent a letter to PLN to make sure there will be no blackouts during the President’s visit on
May 18,” Tribudi said.

Yudhoyono will be in Mataram to hold an evaluation meeting on the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Growth (MP3EI) in Bali and Nusa Tenggara (Nusra).

The visit precedes Yudhoyono’s scheduled visit to Dili, Timor Leste, where he will attend the inauguration of that country’s next president, Taur Matan Ruak.

“East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara are included in the Bali Nusra region. The President will hold a restricted meeting to discuss the progress of the MP3EI program for the Bali-Nusra region, but the schedule and location remain tentative,” Tribudi said, adding that Yudhoyono would be accompanied by six ministers.

The President is scheduled to perform a Friday prayer in Mataram, before opening the meeting.

According to Tribudi, the NTB provincial administration has prepared data on the progress of the MP3EI program in the province.

In Economic Corridor V, Bali, NTB and NTT will be spurred to develop the tourism sector and ensure food security.

“Today, Vice Governor Badrul Munir is heading a coordinated meeting with relevant officials to prepare data on the MP3EI program for the Presidential visit,” Tribudi said.

He hoped that no blackouts would take place during the visit to Lombok.

PLN’ NTB office spokesman Amrullah said the rotating blackouts over the past week were due to storms that damaged the electricity network in Lombok.

“A total blackout took place on May 6 due to weather factors. Lightning has damaged of lightning arresters at a number of main stations,” he said.

He said the company needed time to restore full services because the repairs would need to be done
in stages.

“We have restored the facilities in stages and, during the Presidential visit, we are optimistic that the condition would be normal,” he said.

Amrullah added the blackouts were not due to defects at power stations or a power deficit.

He said that the current electricity capacity in Lombok reaches 148 megawatts, while the peak load reached 135 MW, so PLN has a power reserve of around 13 MW.

Amrullah also apologized to the public in Mataram and Lombok Island for the rotating blackouts over the past week.