Six projects to upgrade Sabah power grid
The government will upgrade the electricity grid in Sabah to increase electricity supply from the west coast to the east coast, said Minister of Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment, Yeo Bee Yin.
KUALA LUMPUR: The government will upgrade the electricity grid in Sabah to increase electricity supply from the west coast to the east coast, said Minister of Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment, Yeo Bee Yin.
For that purpose, she said, six projects for the grid reinforcement and upgrading were identified as critical projects to ensure that the distribution capacity of between 200 to 400 megawatt (MW) could be achieved.
“The six projects are: upgrading of the 132 KiloVolt (kV) line to 275kV (Segaliud-Damrod); new 132 kV transmission line (Segaliud-Seguntor); new 132 kV transmission line (SandakanElopura-Seguntor); new Bukit Nenas main substation (PMU) and PPU and new 132 kV transmission line (Tshun NyenSandakan-Seguntor); new 132 kV Apas PMU and transmission line and the upgrading of the Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau distribution lines. The total cost of the project is RM840 million and the completion of all the projects are expected by the end of 2021 or early 2022,” she said, when replying to a question from Chan Foong Hin (PH-Kota Kinabalu) on the federal government's plan to reduce the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) in Sabah at the Dewan Rakyat sitting yesterday.
SAIDI is the index used to measure the duration of electricity supply disruption on consumers within a year.
In addition, Yeo said, the government was also considering the need to implement several other projects to improve electricity supply in Sabah.
“As an example, among the projects being considered are the Southern Link project costing RM1.25 billion, which is the electricity line in the south (Sabah) to connect the west coast to the east coast by connecting the Kalumpang-Mengalong grid. The existing line connecting the west coast to the east coast is in the north of Sabah, so, with the Southern Link, the grid in Sabah will become one loop to further improve the electricity distribution from west coast to east coast,” she said.
Following that, she said, the government will set a target to reduce the SAIDI rate in Sabah by 58 percent to 100 minutes/ consumer/year by 2020.
“For 2017, the SAIDI rate in Sabah is 241 minutes/consumer/ year compared to 50 minutes in Peninsular Malaysia. This means for every year, every consumer will experience electricity disruption for 241 minutes or less than four hours. Electricity consumers in Sabah experience electricity disruption 4.8 times more often than electricity consumers in Peninsular Malaysia,” she disclosed.