SESB urged to ensure safety of maintenance staff

KOTA KINABALU: It is regrettable and sad that one of the five Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) employees who suffered burns after the substation at Wawasan Plaza exploded and caught fire on Wednesday night has passed away.

Melanie Chia, a Council member for Gabungan Sabah (GS) and the deputy president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), said the severity of the burns suffered by the five employees was dreadful.

“We just pray that the rest can pull through. SESB has to seriously look at its maintenance protocol and ensure there are safety measures for maintenance staff.”

Melanie urged SESB to urgently investigate the incident to ensure no repeat of a similar incident.

She further queried if SESB had a comprehensive maintenance program or at least had a periodic maintenance schedule.

She said that from the recent frequent power outages which consumers have suffered, she cannot see how the Sabah's system average interruption duration index (Saidi) had improved.

Melanie said despite the large amount of money spent by the government over the years in upgrading Sabah electricity supply infrastructure developments and power distribution, Sabah still lagged behind in having consistent power supply.

She said the government and the relevant minister had been talking about doing its best to reduce the incidences of outages for whatever reasons in the last few years and yet no obvious improvement was in sight.

The latest incidence happened on Wednesday whereby five SESB employees suffered serious bodily burns.

“It is high time we emulate our neighbour Sarawak which has a 100% State government owned power generation and distribution company that is making good profit,” Melanie said.