Copper theft leaves Sungai Nyigu Road households, businesses in darkness

BINTULU: A copper theft incident targeting Sesco’s 11kV brick wall substation happened at 6pm last Saturday, causing power outage, affecting light industries and warehouses in Sg Nyigu Road.

It was the latest in a series of copper thefts that have caused power interruptions in Bintulu, inconveniencing customers and affecting households and businesses.

Sesco chief executive officer, Lau Kim Swee, said, “There have been quite a number of copper theft cases recently, targeting Sesco’s facilities and disrupting power supply, and causing inconvenience to customers.

“The thieves are getting daring and are changing their modus operandi as they know we are doing night patrol. We will step up security measures and continue to work closely with the police to curb this crime.”

In this incident, Sesco’s standby team had gone to the substation to attend to a complaint on high voltage in the area.

There, they encountered a thief cutting the transformer’s secondary copper cable, who fled after a brief struggle, leaving behind tools and several earthing conductors which had been cut off. Repair works was done immediately to replace the vandalised copper and supply was restored   within three hours. A police report has been lodged.

An incident at the UPM 33kV substation in January affected supply to about 2,500 customers. In February, three cases were recorded at Nyabau 3, Jasa Putra Jaya and Pearl Garden substations affecting supply to more than 200 customers.

“We will continue to stress how dangerous this criminal activity can be. The thieves persist in risking their lives by breaking into our substations and stealing parts of our highly charged equipment.

In addition to causing equipment failure, power outages and electrocution, copper theft can also cause unstable voltage, damaging customers’ electrical appliances,” said Lau.

Since 2015, there have been 404 cases of copper theft at Sesco electrical facilities.  The company has spent more than RM4.7 million to replace stolen and damaged equipment in the last two years.

While efforts have been stepped up in terms of security and monitoring, Sesco would continue to seek the cooperation of members of the public to report incidents of copper theft or suspicious activities around its facilities.

Concerned citizens may contact Sesco via the Sarawak Energy Customer Care Centre at 1-300-88-3111. Reports can also be logged into Sarawak Energy’s ‘SEB Cares’ Mobile App, available for download at Apple’s App Store for iOS and Google’s Play.