Driving power resilience in Indonesia’s renewable era
Yana Haikal, Country Manager and President Director of PT Eaton Industries Indonesia
Major power failures have struck Indonesia with devastating consequences in the last two years, from Java and Bali’s crippled infrastructure to Sumatra’s two-day blackout that brought business and daily life to a standstill.
These incidents have raised concerns about the resilience of energy systems in Indonesia, as it pushes for increased renewable integration into existing power grids, through projects such as the Green Enabling Super Grid and the Indonesia Electricity Network Transformation (I-ENET) program.
As a key market in the hyperconnected ASEAN region, Indonesia also grapples with the pressure of climate-driven energy transitions. These disruptions underscore the urgent need to strengthen energy resilience — the only way to secure competitive advantage and future-proof our enterprises.
Growing risks in Indonesia
Indonesia faces a confluence of escalating risks that threaten to unravel business continuity. Record temperatures worldwide, as seen in Asia this May, are dramatically increasing the global use of air conditioning.
This trend is further amplified by rising incomes, allowing more individuals to purchase and operate these units – leading researchers at the International Energy Agency (IEA) to predict that power demand from home cooling units will increase by 2.8 times by 2050.
Indonesia’s tropical climate and rapid urbanisation make the nation especially susceptible to these risks. Further, Indonesia’s reliance on legacy infrastructure means that extreme weather events directly result in critical network failures.
For instance, heavy wind and rainfall account for over 95% of weather-related power outages in the Java-Bali region, and recent floods in February in South Sulawesi caused more than 450 electricity substations to shut down. Such disruptions carry a great financial toll – high-impact outages in Indonesia can cost between US$1-3 million per hour in lost revenue.
In addition to the heat, there is also the advent of digitalisation. The Indonesian data centre power market is projected to reach US$3.79 billion in 2030, driven by hyperscaler demand and increased adoption of the internet, AI and cloud.
While a recent report published by the IEA in April 2025 found that Southeast Asia’s electricity demand from data centres will more than double by 2030, this growth is expected to cause Indonesia’s data centre power sector emissions to quadruple in the same period.
This projected surge in demand, coupled with the already rapid growth of data centre electricity consumption, pushes our power infrastructure to its limits, intensifying Indonesia’s vulnerability to power disruptions.
Although the ASEAN power grid could unlock 25 gigawatts of renewable power and energy storage and boost regional reliability, Indonesia continues to be exposed to its own system vulnerabilities.
Fully realising this cross-border power grid will be a difficult process that requires extensive cooperation and coordination, leaving Indonesia exposed and compromising our energy future.
The cost of downtime to businesses
Indonesian businesses face severe financial losses during downtime — from crippled productivity and damaged infrastructure, to disrupted supply chains, and in some cases, compromised data.
The impact is particularly acute for sectors like data centres, where even momentary power fluctuations can trigger massive data loss and operational downtime.
This year’s power outage in Bali affected over 1.8 million customers of state utility PLN, and also caused power plants to shut down simultaneously, severely disrupting the tourism industry and airport operations.
These widespread failures are a stark reminder of the evolving vulnerabilities in Indonesia’s energy grids, which could introduce new risks.
Establishing robust continuity plans is now paramount, especially for entities that are heavily reliant on a consistent power supply.
While PLN is responding through national initiatives like the Just Energy Transition Plan, the pace of grid modernisation remains slow, and businesses cannot afford to be passive.
It is imperative for enterprises to strategically invest in solutions that ensure continuity and protect operations when inevitable disruptions occur.
Safeguarding operations: the role of technology and people
The escalating threat of power disruptions, coupled with increasing demands on modern grids, makes technological safeguards for Indonesian businesses non-negotiable.
A prominent example of such solutions would be Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), battery-backed power systems that provide immediate backup electricity when the main power fails. Unlike generators, which have a startup delay, a UPS is instantaneous and ensures continuous operation.
These technologies are indispensable to operations in data centres, financial institutions or any business relying on digital operations, as they ensure operational continuity.
However, a singular reliance on UPS is insufficient. Enterprises must adopt a multi-layered approach to resilience. Other power protection technologies, such as battery energy storage systems, could help provide extended backup power that’s independent of the main grid, while microgrids can facilitate continued operations during a power outage.
Investing in new and emerging battery technologies will also be crucial to enhancing grid resilience. For instance, unlike commonly used lithium-ion batteries, initial research has shown that nickel-zinc batteries are non-flammable, and have significant advantages in power density, operating temperature range, cycle life, and environmental friendliness.
Even with the best power systems, enterprises should also consider comprehensive strategies for off-site data backup and swift recovery protocols to safeguard against data loss, regardless of the cause.
This includes prioritising training and collaboration among employees to ensure that they are familiar with such protocols, and are kept updated on the latest developments to help integrate new technologies into existing infrastructure smoothly.
A crucial balancing act
Ultimately, the Indonesian government and businesses both face a complex challenge: meeting ever-increasing energy demands, driven partly by global warming and rapid urbanisation, while simultaneously integrating more renewable energy sources.
This requires significant investment in not just new generation capacity but in modernising existing power infrastructure – building smart grids and developing sophisticated energy storage solutions that can withstand future outages.
The goal is to create a resilient grid that can accommodate the intermittent nature of renewables without compromising reliability. This demands strategic foresight from public and private sectors alike, putting the onus on businesses to fortify their operations proactively.
The recent blackouts serve as wake-up calls for Indonesian businesses. As the ASEAN region transitions to renewables while battling climate-driven energy demand,
Investing in power backup solutions isn’t just about avoiding downtime but maintaining a competitive advantage in an increasingly unstable energy landscape.
(JUN/RHZ/QOB)