Gas problem forces SESB to ration power supply

KOTA KINABALU - Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) has been informed by Petronas that the transmission of gas supply to two of the Independent Power Plants (IPP) in Kimanis would be stopped until the beginning of next week.

The utility company in a statement yesterday, said the IPP stations involved are the Kimanus Power Sdn Bhd (KPSB) and EC Energy.

Due to the gas transmission problem to the two IPPs, SESB said it has to ration electricity supply during the peak demand period with a maximum period of three hours per shift.

In addition, SESB was also forced to implement the Demand Side Management (DSM) for large power users to help reduce extensive and longer period of electricity rationing to consumers.

The reduced generation capacity margin in the grid system is also caused by a few other IPPs such as the SJ Libaran which are yet to operate, while only two of the SJ ARL Tenaga’s four gensets are running.

As for the SESB, many of its own power stations are around 29 years old which are no longer able to generate electricity efficiently and need to be replaced or repaired.

As such, SESB is counting on those new IPP stations to further help improve the stability of the grid system.

Efforts are also being made through some new projects in order to balance up the power generation between the IPPs and SESB in Sabah which stands at the rate of 71 percent and 29 percent respectively.

BP