It is believed they removed steel pieces from a 132kV transmission tower that led to its collapse, triggering a major power blackout lasting nearly six hours from 6.41pm and affecting 300,000 consumers.
Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd managing director Baharin Din told a press conference yesterday that 20 pieces of steel holding the tower at Suang Parai area here had been removed.
“They could probably get about RM40 in scrap value but they caused huge losses and inconvenience to the people of Sabah,” Baharin said adding that the tower cost RM400,000 to build. Economic losses caused by the six-hour blackout would be even bigger.
Baharin said the transmission line between Kayu Madang and Universiti Malaysia Sabah collapsed, leading to a domino effect, tripping all SESB and independent power plants connected to the various grids.
“We lost about 500MW of power and 90% of the state was affected,” he said adding that power was restored in stages from 7.15pm on Monday.
Full power was restored by 12.15am yesterday. A temporary tower is now being built with help from SESB's parent company Tenaga Nasional Berhad. A permanent one will take four months to complete.
“The situation is fragile as we are using an alternative underground 66kV cable to channel power from a generating plant here,” Baharin said, adding that the west coast of Sabah was providing much of the supply to the east coast areas, where their generation capacity was low due to old diesel-powered generators.
He said SSEB might implement load-shedding depending on the demand at peak times between 11am and noon and 3pm to 4pm.
On why there was no mechanism to stop the domino effect, Baharin said such a mechanism could only be done if there was excess power supply.
Some 83,000 consumers in Beaufort, Keningau, Tambunan, Tenom, Telupid and Ranau were not affected by the blackout as their supply was not connected to the grid.
SESB received a record 3,848 calls to its hotline number 15454 during the six-hour blackout.
Kota Kinabalu police chief Asst Comm Ahmad Sofi Zakaria said a full investigation was being carried out and they were also checking with scrap dealers to nab the culprits.
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