SABAH ELECTRICITY SHORTAGE WORSENS

KOTA KINABALU, Tues: Worsening electricity shortage in Sabah has led to the following advice - reduce the use of air conditioners and switch off lights that are not needed for up to 7 hours daily.

Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) is requesting the co-operation from consumers to reduce use of these two appliances from 10am to 3pm, and from 7pm to 9pm as these are critical power load hours.

Managing director Baharin Din said the utility company had no choice but to conduct load shedding to avoid a complete system collapse.

SESB is also conducting major repair works on large generation sets at the Tenom Pangi hydro station and the Patau-Patau station in Labuan, apart from smaller plants.

"SESB is aware that consumers are uncomfortable due to power cuts. We have rented 20 generator sets, each with a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW), which have been placed at the Melawa station.

"To manage the situation, we hope consumers can switch off lights that they don't need, and reduce use of air conditioners. We have to conduct load shedding to make sure that the system remains stable. We must avoid a situation where the whole system collapses," he said in a statement.

Consumers have been fuming over rampant power cuts lasting from 3 to 6 hours statewide over the last 10 days. It was learnt that a hypermarket in the outskirts of the city ran out of fuel yesterday to run its own generator set, leaving customers with no choice but to shop without air conditioning.

Last month, SESB issued a statement revealing that electricity supply is at its most critical level after losing 100 MW from disruption at generating plants. The company is under normal circumstances able to generate 756 MW daily.

A plan to build a 300MW coal-fired plant in Lahad Datu was shelved last year following strong protests from environmentalists, as the proposed site was close to the biodiversity rich Danum Valley and Darvel Bay.

An environmental impact assessment is currently being done for another site in Sandakan, but even this new location is facing protests.