B

ali experienced a three-hour total blackout on Saturday evening following a technical issue on one of the extra-high voltage power lines (SUTT) in the Banyuwangi grid in East Java.

The Bali office of state electricity company (PLN) reported that the SUTT unit, located in Situbondo, near Banyuwangi, was struck by lightning during a downpour on Saturday evening.

The incident occurred at around 8:50 p.m. Bali time, or 7:50 p.m. Situbondo time, and resulted in a disconnection of 234.5 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the Bali grid.

Office spokesman Wayan Redika told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that the disconnection had caused an imbalance in the power supply to Bali'€™s homes. '€œA total blackout was unavoidable because the existing power supply was insufficient,'€ Redika said.

'€œWe had to shut down all connections gradually from 9:20 p.m.,'€ he added, emphasizing that the cause of the blackout was a technical failure.

During peak times, Redika said Bali required up to 640 MW to cover the demand for electricity across the island.

The island itself can only produce a maximum of 500 MW, while the Banyuwangi grid supplies another 400 MW via submarine cables to Bali.

Supply had returned to normal around 12:05 a.m., Redika said. '€œEverything has returned to normal now.'€

Due to the incident, PLN suffered losses up to Rp 1.49 billion (US$128,053) from the disconnection of 1.35 million kilowatt hours (KwH).

During the blackout, Denpasar residents flocked to an electrical substation run by Indonesia Power, a subsidiary company of PLN, after rumors circulated that the power cut was due to an explosion at the substation.

Residents said that the rumors had been circulated via various messaging platforms and included pictures of the supposed explosion. The crowd caused a gridlock around Jl. Bypass Ngurah Rai.

Denpasar Police chief Sr. Comr. Djoko Hariutomo, who inspected the substation after the message circulated, confirmed that the news was a hoax.

In Surabaya, the communications and community development manager of the PLN office in East Java, Arkad Matulu, also confirmed that the news was baseless. In a statement very similar to that of PLN Bali, he said the issue was caused by SUTT damage, adding that the failure was resolved around 45 minutes after the incident, but it had taken up to three hours to re-establish supply to all Bali homes.

Arkad also rebuffed the rumors stating the blackout was related to Wednesday'€™s presidential election results.

Although the blackout affected activities on Bali'€™s roads and in homes, events at most of the island'€™s hotels were unaffected. Assistant public relations manager at Aston Denpasar Hotel and Convention Center, Dita Tri Buana Tunggal Dewi, said that her side had prepared sufficient electricity generators to handle such situations.

'€œThe electricity supply from PLN was off from 11 p.m. for the next two hours,'€ Dita said.

'€œBut we have enough generators to supply the hotel. Meanwhile, most of our international guests were outside during the blackout, so not many of our customers were disadvantaged by it,'€ she added.