KOTA KINABALU, May 3 ― Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) had to conduct electricity supply rationing in several districts recently as there was no enough power generated to meet consumer demand.

On average, electricity demand at peak times for Sabah is around 970 MW but the hot weather resulted in an increase in the demand.

The maximum demand recorded this year was 1029 MW on April 26 and although the total electricity generation capacity in the state can generally cover the demand, recently unforeseen problems experienced by a few power plants resulted in less electricity generated.

The supply was not enough to meet the Sabah grid demand, therefore SESB had to carry out electricity supply rationing, said its CEO Mohd Yaakob Jaafar in a statement yesterday.

According to him, on April 12, one of the independent power stations (IPP) with a capacity of 100 MW suffered an unexpected damage causing SESB to ration supply.

The plant resumed operations on April 13 after the cause of the damage was identified and repaired.

“Supply rationing of around 40-60 MW on April 27 and 28 had to be implemented due to unforeseen technical problems experienced by some power stations owned by SESB and also independent power stations which resulted in almost 64MW of generation capacity lost.

“SESB had to ration supply in several districts in order to stabilize the electricity grid system to prevent the entire state from experiencing supply disruptions,” he said.

He added SESB is also discussing with the Energy Commission to help deal with the problem of lack of reserve margin, especially involving the issue of adding new generation in Sabah and the Federal Territory of Labuan.

“SESB is currently in the process of upgrading the electricity supply system in the state and various efforts have been and are being implemented. Some of these efforts are now in the phase of obtaining the approval of the stakeholders,” he said.

Mohd Yaakob said SESB understands the difficulties experienced by consumers when there is a power outage, but at the same time, it requests the cooperation of consumers to also understand the constraints faced by the utility company in providing sustainable services to consumers.

Users are advised to contact SESB Careline 15454, 088-515000 or the WhatsApp application 019-852 5427 and also via the mySESB application on electricity supply matters. ― Borneo Post