Power on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali has been fully restored as of early Saturday morning, a state utility said in a statement, after an hours-long blackout that started on Friday.
Darmawan Prasodjo, president director of state electricity firm Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), said early indications were that a disruption in subsea cables was the cause of outage.
A power outage hit a number of regions of Bali on Friday from 4pm local time (0800 GMT). The tropical island was plunged into a blackout that brought much of the province to a standstill just days after the mass power outage affecting Spain and Portugal.
The island’s airport was also impacted but inbound and outbound flight traffic continued using backup generators, the airport’s general manager Ahmad Syaugi Shahab said in a statement, although several departures had experienced delays.
“There is currently a power outage, for which we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused”, PLN had said. “Some areas have gradually recovered. And other areas are currently still in the process of normalisation.
“We thank all customers for their patience in dealing with this disruption.”
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The company added: “Currently, PLN is moving to restore the power outage. Initial indications of the outage occurred at the Celukan Bawang PLTU Unit #2 which caused the power supply to stop in parts of Bali.”
The company said it had managed to restore 43 per cent of power supply, with PLN offering to provide regular updates. “Thank you for your support and prayers.”
Local media reported traffic lights were unable to function, creating traffic jams, businesses were unable to trade due to payment systems being down, and phone signals were also disrupted.
Images shared on social media showed road traffic holdups as a result of the outage, streets plunged into darkness, and long lines at the airport check-in counters.
The blackout occurred just days after the Iberian peninsula outage left millions of people in the dark on Monday, badly affecting domestic and international transport and stranding travellers.
The Spanish government has launched multiple investigations to determine the precise cause of the blackout and address the underlying vulnerabilities in the power grid.
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