An SESB cable damaged by excavation work.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd’s (SESB) underground cables being dug up by third parties for a road widening project has again caused power outages here recently.
Even though SESB had previously issued a warning and taken legal action against some of those responsible for the problem, it continues to occur.
The recent incident occurred on Saturday at Jalan Tuaran to Simpang Sepanggar Electrical Substation and it resulted in about 3,000 consumers having to suffer a power supply disruption for almost two hours.
SESB in a statement on Sunday said that the outage occurred at 11.53 am and restoration work by the SESB technical team was carried out in stages with the power supply fully restored at 2.49pm.
The outage occurred when excavation by the road widening contractor damaged SESB’s underground cables.
SESB’s Senior General Manager (Asset Management) Ir. Idris Mohd Noor said excavation work by contractors was one of the main challenges the utility company faced in its efforts to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to consumers.
“The incident on Saturday was the second one this week with the first incident happening Wednesday in Kampung Sodomon, Kepayan. The excavation work by the developer in Kampung Sodomon Kepayan caused supply disruption to more than 2,000 consumers in the surrounding area starting at 1.42 pm and supply was restored late in the afternoon,” he said in a media statement.
Idris said such negligence and mistakes will not only cause losses to SESB, but also will affect consumers and the image of the utility company that is working hard to constantly improve its service to the public.