Massive blackout in Bali, Indonesia, causes chaos

Footage of dark streets and shop fronts has been circulating on social media after a massive blackout plunged Bali into darkness.

Power has been restored to many parts of Bali after a massive blackout caused chaos and disruption across the Indonesian island.

The power went out around 4pm local time on Friday (6pm AEST) with reports of payment systems being down and traffic light outages creating long queues and congestion on the roads.

Thousands of tourist locations, businesses and residents were affected by the island-wide outage with some taking to social media to share footage of eerily dark streets and shop fronts.

Initial reports suggested that issues with the submarine cables that transfer power from Java to Bali caused the failure. Ann investigation is underway.

In a statement, a spokesperson for state-run utility firm PLN said: “We would like to apologise for the inconvenience. We are currently focusing on restoring the system before normalising the load”.

Thousands of tourism businesses and homes have been affected by a massive blackout in Bali. Picture: Google Maps

Although the power was out, mobile signal remained, and backup generators were activated in some areas, including at Denpasar’s international airport. Flights were still able to depart and arrive.

Dark shops and homes are shown in this post which says: "Bali blackout edition". Picture: Tiktok/seasalt.158

Footage of chaotic streets and been shared on social media. Picture: Tiktok/mmollehh

Chaos for tourists and locals

Non-functioning traffic lights caused gridlock on the roads and there were reports of multiple traffic incidents as a result of the chaos.
Meanwhile, tourists took to social media to share their experience of the blackout with one person sharing a video of the completely dark streets in Canggu on Instagram.

“Friday night in Canggu,” they wrote, “Power outage to the whole island. No phone connection. No lights. Dark shops. Dark restaurants. Silence and only scooter sounds and people walking and sitting in the dark”.

Watch the video in the player above.

One person shared a video of the dark streets in Canggu. Picture: Instagram/natvy44

Another person shared footage of the congested streets, also in Canggu. Picture: TikTok/d.hammerich

PLN was able to slowly return power to much of the island in the hours after the blackout, with priority given to key infrastructure including government offices, hospitals and hotels.

“State utility PLN managed to restore most of the electricity supply in Bali,” a spokesperson said.

“God willing, power connection in Bali will be fully restored tonight (Friday night).”

The blackout comes just days after Spain and Portugal were also plunged into darknessafter sweeping blackouts.