No disruption to power supply despite fire at station
Posted on February 7, 2012, Tuesday
KOTA KINABALU: The electricity supply throughout the state and Labuan will remain stable despite a small fire which affected the generating capacity at Melawa Power Station in Sepanggar yesterday morning.
Disclosing this yesterday, Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) senior general manager (Asset Management) Ir Ahmad Fuad Md Kasim said the electricity equipment which supplied power from the canopy gensets to Sabah Grid was burnt in the 2am incident.
SESB sought assistance from the Fire and Rescue Department to control and put out the fire, he added.
The damage caused by the fire is about RM100,000 and repair works are expected to completed in less than a week. Although some power was lost during the incident, SESB is now working hard to cushion the impact, he said, adding the cause of the incident was still being investigated.
The gensets with a capacity of 12 megawatts, are part of a short-term initiative by SESB to overcome the shortage of power supply in the state while waiting for the operation of several new power stations in the east and west coasts of Sabah.
Ir Ahmad Fuad said to minimize the impact, Consumer Load Management/Demand Side Management (DSM) at peak load (peak demand) will be implemented for large power users such as large factories identified as having set their own genset.
Apart from facing the loss of 12 MW power supply from the Sabah Grid, SESB also had to do more to address the impact of the loss of generating capacity of 152 MW power plant after a number of Independent Power Producers are involved in critical maintenance work since January 30. This situation is expected to continue until the end of next week.
To appreciate the contribution of the large power consumers in helping SESB to overcome the generating capacity problem, the SESB management had agreed to continue with the DSM incentive which started in August last year.
So far only 12 of the 41 large power consumers are participating in this incentive, with two from Lahad Datu and seven from Sandakan.
In the meantime, consumers are advised to use electricity more wisely and efficiently to avoid wasting energy. Switching off lights in rooms not in use can contribute to the reduction of electricity consumption.
