Emergency towers to supply electricity to Sabah east coast
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) is carrying out emergency works to repair two transmission towers in Ranau.
Its Chief Executive Officer, Ir Ts Mohd Yaakob Jaafar, said the structure of these towers are not safe, while the foot of the towers is unstable due to land subsidence and active ground movement.
“SESB recent on-site inspection found land subsidence and active ground movement around the 275kV transmission line tower site, and this situation has affected the stability of the towers’ main structure.
“The condition of these two towers is very critical to the 275kV Kolopis-Segaliud Grid transmission line because the energy capacity of around 200MW needs to be channeled to the East Coast of Sabah every day from the West Coast of Sabah.
“However, SESB has taken swift action to install a temporary diversion tower, the Emergency Restoration System (ERS) at the site in collaboration with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and the Sabah State government,” he said in a press conference on Friday.
Acording to him, a total of eight ERS towers will be installed in these two locations to ensure that the energy supply to the East Coast of Sabah is not affected.
“SESB has requested help from the Sabah State Government to get a RMAF plane to transport the emergency towers of Tenaga Nasional to Sabah.
“The first shipment of two containers is expected to arrive today. An additional team from Tenaga Nasional will also come to help speed up the construction of these emergency towers,” he added.
Relocation works have started on February 7, 2024 and are expected to be fully completed within five weeks.