KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) is expecting emergency restoration works to be completed by the end of the month to ensure the stability of power supply on the east coast of the state.
"The recent on-site inspection results have found that there are two locations in Ranau-Randagong and Kampung Nabutan where sedimentation and active land movement have occurred around the site of the 275kV transmission tower that caused instability.
"The condition of both towers is critical to the 275kV Kolopis-Segaliud Grid transmission line as a power capacity of approximately 200 MW needs to be transmitted from the west coast of Sabah to the east coast of Sabah daily," said its chief executive officer Mohd Yaakob Jaafar in a press conference.
He said the worst-case scenario from the situation is it would see electricity rationing for people on the east coast.
Yaakob said that on top of the existing seven emergency restoration systems (ERS) to divert the transmission, SESB is also borrowing another five from its parent company Tenaga Nasional Berhad to back up the work.
He added that SESB had also briefed the Sabah government and Energy Commission on the situation and had requested assistance from the Royal Malaysian Air Force to transport the ERS to Sabah as soon as possible.
The utility company has also put an anchor on one of the towers as its supporting pillar was broken and might collapse should there be strong winds.
The restoration work involves 30 staff from SESB, 30 from TNB and 20 from the contractor's company.
"Both towers are located in forest areas where no people live around the site.
"In our annual maintenance schedule, we are doing surveillance every three months on all of our assets using either helicopter or by foot, that is why we could detect the critical towers in December," he said, adding that such a situation happened for the second time after a similar one in the east coast in 2015.
SESB has more than 10,000 towers in the state.
Commenting on the geographical factors in Ranau that potentially affect other assets, Yaakob said that the Southern link through a new transmission line from Sipitang to Tawau would be the alternative solution to connect Sabah's east coast and west coast.
He added that the first 60km of the project would commence this year while the remaining 300km is pending funding approval from the government.