NEWS & UPDATES

KUCHING, 13 AUGUST 2019, TUESDAY: Sarawak Energy appeals to members of the public not to shoot at or near overhead power line especially when hunting. Shooting in the vicinity of power lines is dangerous and as bullets may hit wires, causing them to break and posing a high risk of serious injury or fatality due to electrocution.

A recent incident happened early this month in Pelugau off Jalan Sibu-Bintulu where a stray bullet, believed to have been discharged during a hunting session, caused extensive damage to overhead lines and affecting electricity supply to four transformers. The incident led to intermittent supply interruptions experienced by residents of 20 longhouses in the area on that day.

Sarawak Energy was notified of the supply interruption at 5.45pm and immediately isolated the fault area to restore supply to most of the affected longhouses.

Supply could not be restored to 50 customers in four other longhouses affected by the damaged line: Rh. Encharang, Rh. Dian, Rh. Wilson and Rh. Gama. Sarawak Energy deployed a 300kVA mobile generator set to provide temporary supply before successfully reconnecting back to the grid at 9am on the following day.

During fault investigation, puncture marks were found on the wire and shotgun pellets were still lodged in it.

Gunshot damage has been found to be one of the causes of supply interruption in rural areas with a total of 116 cases recorded since 2011. Sarawak Energy is continuously educating the communities on the dangers posed by these incidents.

The public are reminded that electricity wires are live and must be treated as such even in power outage situations. In any situation, fallen electricity wires are NOT to be touched, and a safe distance of 5 meters or 15 feet away from the wires must be maintained.

Customers aware of any shots fired at or near overhead lines or who notice any damaged electrical facilities are advised to contact Sarawak Energy Customer Care Centre at 1300-88-3111 or email customercare@sarawakenergy.com for assistance. Outages can also be reported through Sarawak Energy mobile app “SEB cares” which can be downloaded from Android’s Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store for iOS.

The technical team found damaged overhead line with a shotgun pellet still lodged onto it.

Four other transformers were also affected due to this incident.