Rio reminds PLN not to shirk its responsibility to compensate consumers.
tirto.id – Zikri had not yet finished trimming his customer’s hair when the signs of a blackout began to spread across Aceh. It started on Monday afternoon (Sept. 29, 2025), when the lights in his barbershop began to dim. The sound of the clippers slowed down, and the heat from the hair dryer stopped coming out.
“I thought my token had run out. The light kept flickering until around half past midnight when it went out completely. I was in the middle of a fade cut. The left side was done, but the right side was still thick,” said the 25-year-old man when contacted by Tirto on Thursday (Oct. 2, 2025).
Since Tuesday (Sept. 30, 2025) at around 00:30 AM, Aceh has been plunged into darkness due to a mass blackout by PLN. As many as 15 districts and municipalities in Aceh—more than half of the province—were affected by the outage that lasted for days.
The affected areas included Pidie, Pidie Jaya, North Aceh, Lhokseumawe City, Langsa, Aceh Tamiang, Bireuen, Bener Meriah, Central Aceh, Greater Aceh, West Aceh, Nagan Raya, Aceh Jaya, Southwest Aceh, and South Aceh.
At the time the blackout began, Zikri still had three customers in his barbershop. They were forced to wait until late at night as he worked slowly, adjusting to the unstable electricity. The following day, when the power went out completely, he admitted he was at a loss because PLN had given no notification.
Relying only on weak internet signals—also affected by the outage—he eventually found out from his friends’ social media posts that the blackout was widespread. At the same time, his barbershop in Syiah Kuala was forced to close for two consecutive days, inevitably costing him income.
“Even when customers made bookings, we couldn’t guarantee them anything. We have five chairs in the shop. The loss over two days was about 1–2 million rupiah. I was also confused about how to pay the daily wages of my four employees,” he said.
By the second day, Zikri finally learned the cause of the outage from media reports citing PLN’s explanation. But until then, living in his barbershop, he had to struggle with daily needs—like borrowing a friend’s boarding house for showers because it wasn’t affected by the blackout.
“Blackouts lasting several days are rare, but in the past, if there was going to be a long outage, PLN usually gave prior notice and an estimate of when power would return. This time there was none. That’s why many people started wondering if this had something to do with politics with North Sumatra,” he said, referring to North Sumatra Governor Bobby Nasution’s policy to stop Aceh-licensed trucks from passing through Langkat just two days before the blackout.
Local PLN officials confirmed the outage was caused by a synchronization failure at the Nagan 3 coal-fired power plant (PLTU). General Manager of PLN UID Aceh, Mundhakir, claimed that hundreds of PLN personnel were deployed to fix the technical problem. Finally, by early Thursday (Oct. 2, 2025), electricity supply was reported to have returned to normal.
“Immediately after the disruption occurred, we mobilized 839 personnel working around the clock to restore the system,” said Mundhakir on Thursday, as quoted by Antara.
Mundhakir added that during the blackout, vital public services such as hospitals and government facilities were prioritized to ensure their electricity supply. “We apologize for the inconvenience our customers experienced and thank the people of Aceh for their patience and understanding during the recovery process,” he said.
A Wake-Up Call for PLN
The Executive Secretary of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), Rio Priambodo, stressed that the blackout in Aceh is an alarm about PLN’s grid reliability. Technical issues, he said, must be explained transparently to the public—especially since PLN only confirmed the mass outage after several days.
“Whatever the reason, there must be strong evidence. If there isn’t, then consumers have the right to question PLN’s explanation until it’s clear. There should be an independent team conducting an investigation—perhaps even officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) to verify PLN’s claims,” Rio told Tirto on Thursday (Oct. 2, 2025).
Rio also reminded PLN not to escape its obligation to compensate consumers. Compensation refers to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation (Permen ESDM) No. 2/2025, which amends Permen ESDM No. 27/2017 on service quality standards and electricity supply costs by PLN.
In the case of Aceh’s mass blackout, the compensation owed by PLN refers to Article 6A (f), which stipulates: “500% (five hundred percent) of the basic charge or minimum bill if the disruption lasts more than 40 (forty) hours beyond the standard service quality threshold.”
Thus, PLN is urged to be transparent about corrective measures so that such incidents don’t recur—or at least can be minimized. On the other hand, consumers could also pursue legal action through class-action lawsuits to push for improvements in PLN’s service quality.
“YLKI sees the need for comprehensive, systemic improvements. From installations, grid reliability, to mitigation of mass blackouts. Consumers are the ones who suffer the most,” Rio said.
YLKI’s Consumer Complaint Profile 2024 data shows that blackouts are a recurring precedent: 42.9 percent of electricity-related complaints were about outages, followed by complaints about sudden bill increases.
According to Publish What You Pay (PWYP) coordinator Aryanto Nugroho, PLN must start reducing its reliance on coal as a primary energy source. The blackout in Aceh, triggered by a failure at a coal-fired power plant, is a symptom of the risks of depending on coal.
“Massive coal use in Indonesia is a ticking time bomb—not only vulnerable to global price fluctuations and supply chain disruptions, but also a major contributor to carbon emissions and climate change,” he said.
He added that the government and PLN should be more aggressive in promoting a transition to more reliable and environmentally friendly sources of energy, rather than continuing to subsidize coal contracts that are often opaque. Alternatives such as solar, wind, micro-hydro, and even tidal energy could serve as more reliable replacements.
These sources would not only reduce carbon emissions but are also more resilient to technical disruptions because of their distributed and modular nature. “In Aceh, the potential for wind and solar could be harnessed for a more stable hybrid system. However, this requires strong policies—and importantly, ensuring a just transition that involves communities so that problems like blackouts can be minimized in the future,” he said.
However, PLN’s Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL) 2025–2034 shows a misalignment with Indonesia’s international commitments. The government had pledged at the G20 Summit in Brazil (Nov. 2024) to phase out all fossil-fuel power plants. Yet, the RUPTL still includes plans to add 6.3 GW of coal-fired power capacity by 2034.
Source: tirto.id