NEWS & UPDATES

KUCHING, 21ST FEBRUARY 2017, TUESDAY: The double circuit tripping of the Selangau-Kemena 275kV transmission line on 19 Feb was suspected to have been caused by lightning activities. Sarawak Energy’s defence system kicked in immediately enabling the islanding of major parts of the Central and Western regions.

The defence system worked effectively to sustain the Kuching-Mukah Island thus allowing quick restoration. This is a direct result of several modifications to the system which speeded up recovery time following the recommendations of an international consultant after the November 2016 outage.

Sarawak Energy upgraded its systems setting for Batang Ai HEP enabling it to continue operating even after the tripping incident, unlike the November outage.  This allowed supply to be completely restored in under two hours with some parts already having supply within minutes.

Sarawak Energy will continue to prioritise the completion of the 500kV Second Transmission Line to strengthen reliability of electricity supply to the Central and Western regions of the state. This is expected to minimise the risk of a major outage from occurring in the southern region. 

Until its completion, Sarawak Energy is stepping up measures to manage the condition of our transmission lines including stepping up the line and tower inspection and vegetation clearing using drones. Sarawak Energy is also in the process of improving its lightning monitoring system to track lightning activities around this area.

Sarawak Energy thanks customers for their patience and regrets the inconvenience caused.  Please be assured that the response teams are continuously on standby 24-7 to ensure fast restoration in the event of an outage.