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series of planned blackouts scheduled for Greater Jakarta has turned out to be relatively minor due to additional power supply and lower-than-expected power usage.

State electricity firm PT PLN spokesman Agus Trimukti said on Tuesday that the company had postponed the rotating blackouts, which were scheduled to take place every three hours between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. starting Monday, as the Java-Bali power connection received 250 megawatts (MW) of supply from the Labuan Banten coal-fired power plant.

Agus said that the firm had resumed its power distribution to Greater Jakarta as power usage in Jakarta and Tangerang had decreased, in addition to the additional supply.

But he warned that the areas might yet suffer blackouts over the next three days, as power usage kept on fluctuating.

“We initially predicted that Greater Jakarta needed 13,500 MW of power but, in fact, it was only around 13,000 MW,” he said, adding that customers had decreased their usage by 500 MW.

Agus said the blackouts could be avoided altogether if people restricted the amount of power they used while the company continued with its repairs to a 500-kilovolt extra high voltage power line (Sutet) in Sumedang, West Java.

PLN had announced over the weekend that it would be forced to instigate the power cuts for five days after a landslide damaged the Sutet, leading to a power deficit of 800 MW in supplies from eastern Java to Jakarta and West Java.

PLN’s power distribution manager for Jakarta and Tangerang, Bimo Samudro, said the repair work was going smoothly and according to schedule. “We hope the work will be completed by Friday,” he said.

Bimo said the company had forcibly decreased 400 MW of power per day by shutting down several substations for three hours in four consecutive periods.

Bimo said, however, that some areas of Greater Jakarta that were scheduled for blackouts experienced only two hours of power outage at maximum on Monday evening, as opposed to the previously planned three hours, because the power load decreased.

Fifty-eight-year-old Martin Mustofa, a resident of Pulogadung, East Jakarta, said his house had a blackout for only two hours. “I was surprised because I didn’t know what had happened until I watched TV later that evening,” he said.

He added that the power cut stopped the water supply at home as his family used groundwater.

Martin said that although he had been informed that there would be no further blackouts in his area, he was taking the precaution of filling water tanks just in case.

Untung Subarkah, a 57-year-old resident of Ciledug in Tangerang who was prepared for a blackout scheduled for Tuesday morning, said he was glad it did not happen.

“I had prepared for the blackout by filling all the water tanks in the house and providing emergency lamps,” he said.

Untung said, however, that he had not been informed about PLN’s suspension of the planned blackouts.

There were no blackouts on Tuesday until 4 p.m.

Meanwhile, Limo, Kampung Maruyung, the Tengki Block, Parung Bingung and the Permata Green Cinere and Cinere Hijau housing complexes, all of which are in Depok, were affected by power outages on Monday. Residents claimed that the blackouts were not part of PLN’s official schedule.

“I was forced to close my kiosk earlier than usual because I was not informed about the blackout and I don’t have a generator,” said Joni, who owns fresh juice kiosk.

Dudung Darsadi from PLN’s Depok office confirmed that Depok was among the areas due to be affected by the rotating blackouts. He also apologized on behalf of the company for any inconvenience caused during the outage.