-
- Lau Kim Swee
-
- What’s left of a vandalised transformer at a Sesco substation in Muara Tebas.
-
- Cables stolen from the switchyard at the Sejingkat substation.
KUCHING: Syarikat Sesco Bhd – the retail and operations arm of Sarawak Energy Bhd – has welcomed the recent announcement by state police commissioner Datuk Mazlan Mansor on the full enforcement of the Second-Hand Dealers Act effective Feb 1 this year.
Sesco chief executive officer Lau Kim Swee said all this while, the unlicensed second-hand dealers had been providing the market for cable thieves to sell stolen cables.
He disclosed that since 2015, there had been 374 cases of cable theft targeted at Sesco facilities, forcing the company to spend more than RM 1.3 million to replace stolen and damaged equipment over the last two years.
“We would like to thank police for their support and cooperation that had resulted in the arrest of individuals related to cable thefts at our facilities. We look forward to working closely with police in this area.
“There had been quite a number of reported cable theft cases happening at our facilities lately. Such cases don’t just cause inconvenience to the people due to outages, but have also resulted in tragic fatalities,” he said, as he disclosed most recent incident occurred in Muara Tebas, where copper parts worth RM45,000 from a 300KVA 11kV/433V transformer at a Sesco substation there had been stolen.
Lau pointed out that apart from causing equipment failure, power outages and electrocution, cable theft could also cause unstable voltage – damaging electrical appliances at its customers’ premises.
“Whilst efforts have been stepped up in terms of security and monitoring, Sesco still seeks continued assistance from members of the public to report cases of cable theft or suspicious activities around its facilities.
“Concerned citizens can contact Sesco via the ‘Sarawak Energy Customer Care Centre’ line 1-300-88-3111. Reports can also be logged onto the ‘SSEB Cares’ mobile app, available for download via Apple’s App Store for iOS and Google’s Play Store for Android.”
Earlier this week, Mazlan was reported to have said that police would be fully enforcing the Second-Hand Dealers Act effective this Feb 1, and launching a statewide operation to go after the unlicensed dealers.
According to Mazlan, police have so far received a total of 438 applications to trade in used goods and approved 240 of them. The remaining 198 applications are still in the process of being approved.
Mazlan said with the enforcement of the Act, police would be able to monitor those purchasing stolen goods and be more effective in reducing the number of cable and metal theft cases in the state.