Jakarta (ANTARA) - Electricity has been restored to most areas affected by floods and landslides in Indonesia’s Aceh Province, with power back on in 5,961 of 6,500 impacted villages as of Monday evening, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said.
A disaster response team under the ministry reported that 539 villages remained without electricity as of 7:00 p.m. local time on Monday, mainly due to damaged infrastructure and ongoing flooding.
According to data published on the ministry’s official website, power has been restored to 774,401 of the 970,954 customers affected by the disasters in Aceh.
The largest number of villages still without electricity was recorded in Central Aceh, with 147 villages affected, followed by Bener Meriah (140), Aceh Tamiang (99), Gayo Lues (69), and East Aceh (41). Other districts with remaining outages include North Aceh, Bireuen, Nagan Raya, Southeast Aceh, and West Aceh.
In neighboring North Sumatra Province, electricity has been restored to 543,346 of the 554,048 customers impacted by floods and landslides, the team said.
Full restoration had previously been achieved across all districts, but renewed heavy rain, landslides and severed road access caused fresh disruptions in several areas.
In Central Tapanuli, five of 215 villages remain without power, while four of 395 villages in North Tapanuli and one of 211 villages in South Tapanuli are still affected.
In West Sumatra, flash floods again disrupted electricity supplies, affecting 274,564 customers. Power has since been restored to 273,804 of them. Three hamlets were re-flooded: Jorong Lambeh, affecting 145 customers; Jorong Batu Busuak, with 530 customers; and Jorong Labuah, affecting 85 customers.
Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told a cabinet meeting in Jakarta on Monday that efforts to restore electricity were hampered by collapsed power poles, damaged roads and villages still submerged by floodwaters.
“Forcing electricity into areas that are still flooded could pose serious safety risks,” Bahlil said.
He added that Aceh currently has about 110 megawatts of generation capacity, with an average load of around 66 megawatts, although part of the supply still relies on generators.
The main power grid has been restored to about 80–90 percent capacity and is expected to fully normalize within weeks, allowing electricity from Arun and Bireuen to flow normally again, Bahlil said.
Inter-island transmission across Sumatra has been reconnected, but distribution to remote villages remains constrained by severe infrastructure damage, he added.
