EVIDENCE: Sjotveit showing the data recorded during the blackout on June 27.
KUCHING: Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) has maintained that last Thursday’s statewide power outage was caused by failure at the Bakun Hydroelectric Plant.
Its chief executive officer Tortstein Dale Sjotveit told a media conference here yesterday that they now had clear evidence to show that the total system blackout was due to the problem with the system in Bakun.
“Our data shows that the three Bakun units tripped at about the same time, which had approximately 650MW of load before the incident. The frequency drop created by the tripping of the three units led to the shutdown of all our power stations – Sejingkat in Kuching, Batang Ai, Mukah coal plant, as well as Bintulu and Miri gas plants.
“Subsequently, it also led to the tripping of the transmission line.
“Within 10 minutes after the incident, we initiated a Blackout Restoration Plan to start all the generation plants with the following results – Batang Ai HEP (re-started at 5.53pm), Tun Abdul Rahman Power Station in Kuching (re-started at 5.56pm), Bintulu Power Station (re- started at 6.21pm) and Miri (re-started at 7.45pm). Bakun was synchronised to the grid at 9.46pm,” he claimed.
In response to questions from the media, Sjotveit, however said the root of the problem in Bakun was still unknown and investigation was ongoing to establish the actual cause.
“Bakun (Sarawak Hidro) has communicated with us and acknowledged that the power outage was due to the problem with their governor system. We will be working closely with them in finding the solution to the problem to ensure that the operations of Bakun, being an independent power producer, maintain its global standards.
“We would also like to be transparent in our findings to ensure that the public is also kept informed of the actions taken by SEB. Very soon we will also share with everyone our restoration (recovery) process,” Sjotveit said.
EVIDENCE: Sjotveit showing the data recorded during the blackout on June 27.