Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources Ensures Investigation Of Causes Of Blackout In Sumatra

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif. (Photo: Maria Trisnawati/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif confirmed that his party would investigate the blackout or power outage incident that occurred on the island of Sumatra on Tuesday, June 4.

Arifin said this investigation aims to determine the cause of the disruption of electricity throughout Sumatra Island.

Not only that, he continued, the investigation was also intended so that a similar incident would not happen again.

"We ask for investigations and mitigation in the future so that it doesn't happen again," Arifin told the media, Friday, June 7.

Arifin said, in this investigation his party will focus attention on the reliability of the equipment that has been carried out for a long time so that further evaluation can be carried out.

"Reliability of the equipment that has been around for a long time needs to be evaluated again," added Arifin.

In addition to conducting direct investigations, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources through the Director General of Electricity, Jisman Hutajulu has also reprimanded PT PLN (Persero).

"The Director General (Kerjen) has given a letter. The ESDM team has gone down (investigating)," concluded Arifin.

Previously, there was a disruption to the SUTET transmission network 275 kV Linggau-Lahat, which is an interconnection network and is connected to a number of areas on the island of Sumatra, Tuesday, June 4.

General Manager of PLN Main Distribution Unit of South Sumatra, Jambi, and Bengkulu (UID S2JB) Adhi Herlambang said normalization efforts involved handling 458 auctioners, 29,146 distribution substations, and 4.3 million customers.

The speed and dedication in handling this not only ensures the recovery of electricity supply, but also maintains the optimal level of safety and quality of work by PLN officers to ensure electricity services return to normal.