KUCHING, Feb 22: Sarawak Energy is closely monitoring the performance of its rural lines in Spaoh, Betong, and has set up reinforcement plans to provide better supply reliability to the area.
The ongoing Pan Borneo Highway works are contributing to an increase supply interruptions in Spaoh, adding to the challenge of the operation and maintenance of the long overhead lines that supply the rural town.
Spaoh, located at the end of 75km long overhead lines, was previously powered from Engklili 33kV substation, which caused the rural town to be vulnerable to interruptions at any point along the stretch of lines.
In addition, the long lines are already susceptible to external disturbances such as adverse weather conditions, animal intrusion and other technical challenges.
“Based on the outage report for 2018, 14 planned and unplanned outages were caused by Pan Borneo Highway related works. A further 13 interruptions were attributed to external disturbances to the lines and another 13 outages were caused by equipment failure and planned shutdown for maintenance,” Sarawak Energy said in a statement.
To improve reliability of supply for Spaoh, the company has allocated RM163.78 million of reinforcement projects in 2017. The projects are being rolled out in phases.
“This includes the addition of supply sources via the 11kV overhead lines project to connect Spaoh town from Tanu and Debak lines.
“Completed on 16 February 2019, this RM780,000 project means that Spaoh now has two new supply sources, from Tanu and Debak, improving supply reliability to the area,” it continued.
Another major reinforcement project to further enhance the supply reliability for Spaoh is the construction of the RM163 million Serudit 275kV Extra High Voltage (EHV) substation project scheduled for completion in June 2020.
This EHV substation will be the main injection point for Spaoh, Betong and Pusa, in addition to the Engklili 33kV substation.
While reinforcement works are progressing for Spaoh and the surrounding areas, Sarawak Energy will continue to closely monitor the lines to ensure fast restoration of supply in the case of an interruption, it said.
Sarawak Energy expressed commitment in ensuring supply reliability for all its customers and is taking the necessary measures to improve its system performance in both urban and rural areas. — DayakDaily
