Attempted cable theft causes 20-minute power outage

KUCHING: Investigation by Syarikat Sesco Bhd, the Sarawak Energy's operations arm, found that the 20-minute power outage in several parts of Petrajaya here last Friday was caused by attempted cable theft that resulted in severely damaged cables.
Sarawak Energy in a statement said two 33kV underground cables from Matang to Astana 33kV substation, near Bulatan Datuk Temenggong Abang Kipali's construction site were found cut, which resulted in the outage at around 10 pm to Astana and the surrounding areas, Semariang and parts of Santubong, on the Chinese New Year day.
Swift action from SESCO's technical team, however, managed to restore supply to all affected areas in less than 20 minutes via other 33KV substations, and the fault locating and repair works took almost 15 hours to complete due to the extensive damage.
"At the site, hand gloves, a bag and other belongings of the thieves were found, believed to be used in the attempt to steal the cables. A police report was lodged for investigation," according to the statement.
Sesco chief executive officer Lau Kim Swee was quoted in the statement as saying that the incident was another attempt of cable theft which showed that the thieves were getting bolder every day.
"There have been more than 500 cases of cable (copper) theft targeting our facilities with losses of nearly RM7 million since 2015. Stealing cables is very dangerous. In addition to causing serious injury or fatality due to electrocution, it also causes inconveniences to the community living in the surrounding area due to outage.
"There are also situations where damaged cables cause voltage instability, damaging customers' electrical appliances," he added. — Bernama