Sarawak Energy Berhad: RM4.7 mln spent past two years to replace stolen, damaged equipment

KUCHING: Sarawak Energy Berhad ( SEB) spent more than RM4.7 million to replace stolen and damaged equipment in the past two years at its substations and facilities statewide.

Chief executive officer of its subsidiary, Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation (Sesco), Lau Kim Swee said since 2015 alone, there had been 404 cases of copper theft at such places.

In a statement here yesterday, he said such activities had caused great inconvenience to SEB, its customers and households, besides being very dangerous to the perpetrators themselves.

“The thieves are getting more daring and changing their modus operandi as they know we are doing night patrols of our facilities.

“We will step up our security measures and will continue to work closely with the police to curb this crime,” he said.

He disclosed that a copper theft incident occurred at its 11kV brick wall substation in Bintulu at 6pm last Saturday.

“This latest in a series of incidents caused power disruptions in the town, inconveniencing customers and affecting households and businesses,” he said.

Lau said a Sesco standby team had gone to the substation to attend to a complaint on high voltage in the area.

“They encountered a thief who was in the midst of cutting the transformer’s secondary copper cable. He managed to flee after a brief struggle with our men but left behind tools and some earthing conductors which had been cut off,” he said.

Lau said repair work was immediately carried out to replace the vandalised copper and power supply was restored to customers within three hours.

He said a similiar incident occurred at the UPM 33kV substation in January, affecting supply to about 2,500 customers.

“In February this year, three other cases were recorded at Nyabau 3, Jasa Putra Jaya and Pearl Garden substations, also in Bintulu, affecting about 200 customers,” he added. — Bernama