KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Timber Industries Association (STIA) strongly feels that the relevant agencies under the state and federal governments, in particular Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), are not doing enough to assist the timber industry at Seguntor Integrated Timber Complex to resolve the power supply problem.
It said that the issue was getting out of hand and beyond the tolerance level of the industry.
On June 17, STIA highlighted the problems faced by the Seguntor Integrated Timber Complex timber processing mills due to the frequent power supply failure in that area and the inability of SESB to resolve the problems after so many years.
The suffering of the timber processors due to the inadequate power supply has been felt since 2009. STIA had appealed then for the state and federal governments to intervene.
On July 4, SESB issued a general circular to all Seguntor Integrated Timber Complex operators informing that one of the generating sets at Rugading Power Plant, with a capacity of 95MW, would be shut down for major inspection scheduled from July 5 to 30.
STIA again appeals for the state and federal governments to act immediately to resolve this unending suffering due to the repeated power cuts in the Sandakan Seguntor area.
The decision to cut power supply as scheduled by SESB to the Seguntor area should be stopped immediately. SESB should look at using additional mobile generator plants to resolve the power supply deficit problem at Seguntor area during this exercise.
And cutting or reducing power supply to Seguntor area should not be an option when carrying out any major inspection for any power plant in the state, STIA said in a statement yesterday.