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Heat builds over Sabah brown-outs

Posted by Save Sandakan On June - 21 - 2009

The business community in Sabah is becoming increasingly hot under the collar because of disruptions in power supply. These occur two or three times a week, each time for three or four hours.

“Power rationing must be implemented fairly among all areas in the state. SESB must also provide a well-planned power rationing schedule so that losses and inconvenience can be minimised.”

“SESB and Tenaga Nasional are unfair. If electricity is disrupted in the peninsula, the traders are paid for the losses they have incurred. “So, we want the Sabah people to be given the same benefits,”

“It is crucial to have a generator with a large capacity to meet the increasing demands from our consumers in the east coast.

Sporadic power shortages suffered by Sabah can be expected to worsen in the short and medium run and the situation is not expected to stabilise by 2018 at the very earliest ……..

Heat builds over Sabah brown-outs

Joe Fernandez | May 20, 09 3:49pm

The business community in Sabah is becoming increasingly hot under the collar because of disruptions in power supply. These occur two or three times a week, each time for three or four hours.

MCPX

Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau are all particularly badly hit by what Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) calls “power rationing” which has been in effect since late last month.
Reacting, Sandakan Chinese Chamber of Commerce secretary Steven Wong said: “Power rationing must be implemented fairly among all areas in the state. SESB must also provide a well-planned power rationing schedule so that losses and inconvenience can be minimised.”
sabah electricity Business operators are also demanding that SESB compensates them for losses, as practised by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) in Peninsular Malaysia. TNB owns 80 percent of SESB, while the state government holds a 20 percent interest.
“The SESB should place notices in the newspapers about power failures that might hit certain areas. Who is going to bear the losses suffered by business establishments?” fumed Melanie Chia, the state assemblyperson for Luyang.
The former state assistant finance minister, she accused SESB of incompetence and alleged that the company does not have a comprehensive maintenance programme.
melanie chia sapp sabah wanita 180509 Chia lost her government post when her party, the Sabah People’s Progressive Party, pulled out of the ruling Barisan Nasional last September, citing a loss of confidence in the federal leadership and expressing unhappiness over a host of unresolved local grievances. The shortage of power is among their complaints.
Kalabakan MP Abdul Ghapur Salleh shared Chia’s view on compensation for the inconvenience and losses suffered by the business community.
“SESB and Tenaga Nasional are unfair. If electricity is disrupted in the peninsula, the traders are paid for the losses they have incurred. “So, we want the Sabah people to be given the same benefits,” he said.
He pledged to bring up the matter in Parliament and urged traders who have suffered losses to write to him with specific details.
Infrastructure problems
SESB, in a statement recently, explained that its power generation capacity cannot meet the increasing demand for electricity. It also has to cope with faulty generators in Sepanggar, Kota Kinabalu, and undertake critical maintenance work at the Patau-Patau power station in Labuan and the Tenom Pangi hydro-electric power station.
Two mobile generator sets, parked at the Tanjung Aru power station, went up in smoke last week leaving SESB with only four sets which cost RM 2.4 million each.
“Many of SESB’s generator sets and existing IPP (Independent Power Producers) are currently in poor condition and often break down,” said senior corporate communications manager Chendramata Sinteh.
“In addition, the new IPP projects in Kimanis (west coast) and the east coast area are still in the planning and discussion stages. They may be a bit delayed due to several factors.”
sabah Sabah is badly in need of a high-powered generator station along the east coast to replace the existing diesel-generator sets which are all “in bad condition”, he said.
“It is crucial to have a generator with a large capacity to meet the increasing demands from our consumers in the east coast. But again implementation of these projects have been delayed and is affecting our power distribution throughout the state.
“Also, a total of RM 8.5 billion is need to implement various projects for generation, supply and distribution. We need government support and we are striving to get this.”
Federal aid promised
SESB is looking ahead for a solution. The RM149 million Kota Kinabalu Outer Ring project is expected to be completed in the middle of next year. The project and related works will complete the distribution ring linking Sepanggar, the Kota Kinabalu inner city, Penampang, Lok Kawi and Kepayan.
“Power supply in the Kota Kinabalu areas would be in a complete ring system and this would enhance the reliability of electricity supply in the city areas,” said SESB managing director Baharin Din.
By its own estimates, the state’s current power reserve margin is 15 percent, which is below the standard electricity supply practice of maintaining about 40 percent power reserves.
“Any time there is a peak in demand, that 15 percent is gone. With no reserves, that is very dangerous,” admitted Peter Chin Fah Kui, the federal minister for energy, green technology and water, while on a visit to Kota Kinabalu last weekend.
He pledged RM26 million from the federal coffers for the purchase of 20 mobile generator units of 1MW generating capacity each “as an immediate solution to ease Sabah’s power supply woes”.
The state has to look elsewhere for mid-term and long-term solutions, advised Chin. For the mid-term, the state needs two mini-hydro electricity projects and beyond that, it will have to look to Sarawak which is expected to have excess power supply.
Sporadic power shortages suffered by Sabah can be expected to worsen in the short and medium run and the situation is not expected to stabilise by 2018 at the very earliest, according to projections by Chin’s ministry.
Sabah’s power needs appear to be a relatively modest 1,500MW by 2020, while Sarawak’s needs are projected at 7,000MW and Peninsular Malaysia a whopping 20,000MW.
SESB, it is understood, is currently carrying out an engineering study on the Upper Padas hydro project to generate 150MW of electricity by 2017. The 150MW Liwagu hydro project is expected to be completed in 2018.