SESB loses RM4 mln to power the
Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) suffered an es mated loss of RM4 million due to electricity the commi ed in the state from 2017 to 2019, said its ac ng managing director Abdul Nasser Abdul Wahid.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) suffered an estimated loss of RM4 million due to electricity theft committed in the state from 2017 to 2019, said its acting managing director Abdul Nasser Abdul Wahid.
“In 2018, out of the 2,592 inspections carried out, a total of 429 cases of electricity theft were recorded, involving an estimated loss of RM1.3 million.
“Meanwhile, in 2017, out of the 1,691 inspections carried out, a total of 486 electricity theft cases were recorded, involving an estimated loss of RM2.45 million.
“So far, for this year (January till February), a total of 280 inspections had been carried out whereby 75 cases of electricity theft were recorded, involving an estimated loss of RM243,000,” he told reporters.
Abdul Nasser, who was met during SESB and Energy Commission’s joint operation at Kolombong on Wednesday, said that all the recorded cases involved the tampering of meters.
“The way we conduct our investigation is through planning – we would carry out periodic monitoring and we have our own strike force.
The strike force will then channel the information to the SESB and Energy Commission for them to carry out the integrated operation – just like what we are doing here today (wednesday),” added Nasser.
He explained that such offences would be investigated under Section 37 and Section 38 of the Electricity Supply Act 1990.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, 30 personnel from the Energy Commission and SESB had inspected 11 premises comprising cold storages, marts, massage parlours and so on.
Five of the operations were conducted on Tuesday and the rest on Wednesday; they were carried out from 10am to 7pm in areas around Lok Kawi, Jalan Padang Kota Kinabalu and Kolombong.
Energy Commission’s Enforcement Planning and Coordination deputy director Shafie Mohamed, who led the operation, said that the first six premises that they inspected had shown signs of meter tampering.
“They tampered the interior parts of the meter … some of them pierced through the meter and some of them bypassed the meter … they would place wires so that the electricity usage would not be fully recorded,” said Shafie.
It is understood that once a potential tampering case has been detected, the meter in question will then be replaced with a new one; the readings obtained from both the old and new meter will then be compared to determine whether or not there has been actual tampering.
“Based on the test that we conducted, we can see that the meter has been tampered with. This means that the actual amount of electricity used was not fully recorded. Only around 30% of it was recorded,” he said commenting on the investigation at the said premises in Kolombong, adding that the said meter might have been tampered with since 2017 and that the losses incurred could reach up to RM100,000.
In light of this issue, Shafie stressed that the act of tampering with the electricity meter is very dangerous as it could harm users or the perpetrator himself – it could lead to fatal electrocution.
“Secondly, such acts could also lead to utility loss for SESB. This would also be a loss for the people (of the state) as a whole. Thus, we don’t want such things