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PLN blackout communication confuses, disappoints
In the wake of massive blackouts across four provinces, state-owned electricity company PLN's contradictory, convoluted and unclear statements added to the confusion.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
T
he public communication of state-owned electricity company PLN in the wake of the massive blackouts that crippled much of Jakarta, Banten, West Java, and parts of Central Java, has left much to be desired, with unclear information causing confusion and uncertainty among customers.
The blackout started around noon on Sunday and continued until Sunday night, with some areas only getting power back in the early hours of Monday. On Monday morning, households in areas ranging from West Jakarta to Bandung, West Java, were once again affected by intermittent blackouts.
PLN corporate communications head I Made Suprateka initially said several turbines at the Suralaya power plant in Cilegon, Banten, had experienced “trips”, leading to the blackouts.
Later on Sunday evening, however, PLN acting president director Sripeni Inten Cahyani corrected the statement, saying instead that disruptions in the Extra High Voltage Transmission Line (SUTET) between the Ungaran and Pemalang regencies in Central Java triggered a domino effect that ended with the blackouts.
Sripeni also said the company was targeting to restore power by midnight.
While most areas indeed saw the lights go on by Sunday night, on Monday morning and afternoon the power supply still seemed unstable and chain messages on the WhatsApp messaging app claimed that PLN would be scheduling planned outages every three hours until repairs were completed.
PLN spokesman Dwi Suryo Abdullah called the message a hoax, but Sripeni said power outages were planned for several regions but did not specify where and when.
