KUCHING, March 27 — Vandalism has been identified as the cause of a supply interruption affecting multiple areas in Petra Jaya at around 9.15pm on Saturday.
Sarawak Energy in a statement said a thorough investigation found that the root cause of the outage was due to a high-tension main cable that had been cut by vandals outside the Astana fencing during Earth Hour.
It said the high fault (excessive flow) current caused by the irresponsible act of vandalism resulted in cascading fault at two old cable joints.
Areas that were affected by the outage were Medan Raya, Kampung Sungai Bedil, Bukit Siol, Jalan Astana, Che Buyong, Jalan Hashim Jaafar, Jalan Merdeka, Kampung Lintang, Arked Mara, Ava Astana, and Astana Housing.
Sarawak Energy said most areas were restored by 12.15am yesterday, with the first area at Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka restored by 10.40pm Saturday.
The remaining areas received power by 3am, with the exception of Sungai Bedil, which was successfully restored at noon yesterday after the cable faults were rectified.
Upon receiving outage reports, Sarawak Energy’s operations and retail arm Syarikat Sesco Berhad immediately deployed its technical team to assess the situation and begin round-the-clock repair works.
Sesco had deployed mobile gensets to provide backup supply to customers in the affected areas, restoring supply to most quarters, with the exception of the Sungai Bedil area, which has accessibility issues due to narrow and congested access roads.
Sarawak Energy apologised for any inconvenience this outage may have caused its customers.
To address the challenges of ageing cable joints, Sarawak Energy Regional Manager (Western Region) Nazry Abdul Latip said the utility company has an ongoing plan to reinforce the supply to Petra Jaya.
“This includes laying new high-tension cables and installing motorised switchgears to speed up restoration. Ageing cable joints will be replaced through the reinforcement project,” he said.
Sarawak Energy is dedicated to ensuring the swift and safe restoration of electricity supply to all affected customers, prioritising the safety of their personnel and the public.
To achieve this, the company has invested significantly in technology, back-up supply, and infrastructure to develop a more modern, efficient, and reliable power system.
Additionally, its technical teams are on high alert and standby 24 hours a day, ready for immediate restoration during both localised and major outages.
The focus is to restore power supply to customers as quickly as possible, utilising alternative feeder or supply sources if applicable, before focusing on repair works.
Members of the public can contact Sarawak Energy 24/7 Customer Care Centre at 1300-88- 3111, email [email protected] or utilise Sarawak Energy mobile app SEB Cares to report outages to assist in speedy restoration of electricity supply or report any suspicious activities near its facilities. — Borneo Post
