The Institute for Essential Services Reform says a series of power outages in northwestern Indonesia suggests the country’s transmission infrastructure is not ready to implement the gigawatts of solar projects planned over the coming years.
Plans to integrate tens of gigawatts of solar energy in Indonesia are bound to fail if the national transmission framework is not designed to withstand increasingly severe climate conditions, the Jakarta-based think tank Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) has said.
The province of North Sumatra in northwestern Indonesia has faced two major power disruptions within a month, including the collapse of a total 12 transmission towers.
On June 4, the 275 kV Galang–Simangkuk EHV transmission line, operational only since 2019, suffered structural failure, with three towers collapsing and two others suffering deformation. The incident followed issues on the 150 kV Tebing Tinggi–Sei Rotan HV transmission line earlier the same day, including six towers collapsing and one tower bending.
The events, which coincided with heavy rainfall and strong winds in the area, caused major disturbances to the regional power system and widespread outages that were not fully rectified until the next day. Prior to the incidents in June, eight provinces across Sumatra island also experienced power outages on May 22, with full systems restoration not reached until May 24.
