Reducing interruptions in Sabah’s power supply

Federal Minister Maximus Ongkili added that the aim was to tackle the components of electricity generation, transmission and distribution.

KOTA KINABALU: The System Average Interruption Duration Index (Saidi) in Sabah which depicts a consumer’s average annual electricity supply disruption has shown a significant reduction due to ongoing development.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Dr Maximus Ongkili said between January and Oct 31 this year, Saidi had shown a significant reduction to 371 minutes as compared to 557 minutes last year.

He said this indicated that Sabah would achieve its Saidi target of 450 minutes this year.

He attributed this to the power supply infrastructure development in Sabah, implemented through federal allocations under the Ninth and Tenth Malaysia Plan, as well as special grants to reduce the Saidi.

“This also includes the continued pouring in of capital expenditure to ensure Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) meets its key performance index (KPI) to reduce Sabah’s Saidi.

“In order to reduce electricity interruptions, we have to tackle the components of electricity generation, transmission and distribution,” Ongkili said in a statement here.

He said this after a visit to SESB yesterday, where he was briefed by SESB senior general manager (asset management) Ahmad Fuad Md Kasim on the status of Sabah’s Saidi and federal-funded electricity development projects.

He also visited the SESB load despatch centre in Penampang and the Kolopis main intake station.

Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, RM782.89 million was allocated to upgrade electricity distribution, transmission and generation in Sabah, of which 91.17% had been completed.

SESB’s challenge

Under the Tenth Malaysia Plan, RM321.84 million was utilised for the same purpose, of which project completion was recorded at 29.79%.

“We are also thankful to the Government for allocating RM265 million for 2014 to address the frequent electricity supply disruption in Sabah,” said Ongkili.

On the distribution side, he said the task was to replace the bare lines which make up 80% of the distribution cables in Sabah, with aerial bundled cable and the replacement of the cables was expected to commence next year and will take five years to complete at a cost of RM1.4 billion.

However he said the major challenge faced by SESB remained its financial sustainability because at present, the tariff was only able to cover 80% of its operation costs.

-Bernama