SEB: Zero tolerance for open burning near power facilities
KUCHING: Sarawak Energy Berhad ( SEB) will not tolerate irresponsible open burning near power facilities.
Its group chief executive officer Sharbini Suhaili said such acts could compromise the operations and safety of the state’s electrical facilities.
“Extensive damage to critical facilities such as transmission lines and substations can cause prolonged power interruptions.
“There have been frequent open burning activities and fires near our electrical facilities lately and some have affected the operations, compromising safety and resulting in loss of supply,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
According to him, there have been three cases reported thus far in Simunjan, Sarikei and Kapit.
“On Aug 15, open burning activities near the transmission lines at Sabal, Simunjan caused the 275kV Mambong-Engkilili lines to trip at 3.08pm, causing loss of supply to some parts of Kuching.
“This could have caused a major interruption in Kuching. We are fortunate that with the protection system in place and our newly commissioned second transmission backbone grid, our technical team managed to minimise the number of affected areas and fully restore supply within 30 minutes,” Sharbini said.
A similar incident happened on the same day in Sarikei, near the Sarikei-Tanjung Manis 132kV transmission tower.
However, swift action by the Fire and Rescue Department ( Bomba) managed to prevent the fire from damaging the system.
On Aug 9 in Kapit, quick action by Bomba also brought a fire near the Kapit 132/33kV Substation under control.
“Our operations team is monitoring occurrences of fire near our facilities and we are working closely with the relevant agencies to ensure the facilities are safe and operations are not compromised.
“We will not tolerate these dangerous acts, and will assist the Natural Resources and Environment Board ( NREB) to monitor activities near our facilities. We will not hesitate to report those discovered causing these dangerous fires,” he stressed.
In a recent statement from NREB, those found guilty of conducting illegal open burning could be fined up to RM30,000.
SEB is also urging the public to report any open burning activity to the relevant authorities to prevent any untoward incident that could cause public inconvenience.
The public can also call Sarawak Energy’s Customer Care Centre at 1- 300- 88- 3111.