KOTA KINABALU: A load shedding operation will be carried out in Sabah and Labuan from Aug 1 to Aug 7 due to scheduled maintenance at the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) in Kimanis, Papar.
These works carried out by PETRONAS will impact over 600,000 domestic users in Sabah and Labuan, said Sabah Electricity Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mohd Yaakob Jaafar at a press conference here on Wednesday (July 30).
He said maintenance works on offshore and onshore platforms would result in the gas supplies to the two Independent Power Producers (IPP) in Kimanis being disconnected.
These two IPPs are the Kimanis Power plant (255MW) and SPRE power plant (100MW), he said.
Yaakob said they did not foresee any power disruptions in the initial phase of discussions with PETRONAS and the Energy Commission of Sabah (ECoS) earlier this year.
However, based on information received on Tuesday (July 29), it was found that the power plants were unable to operate using alternative fuel, and this resulted in the need to load the shed, he said.
He said a total of 195MW of power will be lost in the Sabah grid system for this seven-day period, which explains the load shedding from Aug 1 to Aug 7.
Yaakob said that if possible, he hoped PETRONAS could postpone the maintenance works at SOGT until the generation capacity stabilises, so that there would be no power supply disruptions.
“This measure is needed to ensure stability in Sabah’s electricity system. If maintenance works
were put on hold, then the people of Sabah will have some relief,” he said.
He said the load shedding process would be inconvenient to users in Sabah and Labuan, especially during peak hours between 10am and 10pm, where each area would have no supply for an hour or two, on a rotation basis.
Yaakob said Sabah Electricity would work closely with all stakeholders, especially the IPPs and ECoS, to monitor the situation while taking proactive measures to reduce power disruptions.
He urged the public to get more information on the load shedding schedule, which includes time, date and area affected via the Sabah Electricity Facebook page and the Sabah Electricity application.
