By DayakDaily Team
BINTULU, May 15: Power supply to parts of Bintulu town and surrounding areas was disrupted on Saturday (May 11) after underground cables from the Bintulu Town Zone Substation were damaged by third-party excavation works along Jalan Sultan Iskandar.
According to a media release today, Syarikat Sesco Berhad, the retail and operations arm of Sarawak Energy, responded swiftly to the incident.
The first outage occurred at 8.55am and electricity was restored to most areas within 40 minutes. However, a second cable fault at 11.57am led to further disruptions, with full restoration completed by 11.59pm after extensive repair works.
The affected areas included Taman Sutera, Pine Avenue, Parkcity 4, and neighbouring communities.
Sesco’s regional manager for Bintulu Hung Sing Ye disclosed that restoration was challenging due to muddy conditions and the severity of the damage.
“Despite this, our teams worked safely and continuously to restore supply as quickly as possible to the affected areas.”
To minimise the impact during the prolonged outage, Sesco deployed two mobile generator sets to support critical facilities, including the Bintulu police station and parts of the affected residential areas.
Hung confirmed that the contractor responsible for damaging the underground cables will bear the cost of repairs.
Sesco expressed appreciation to customers for their patience and reaffirmed its commitment to providing reliable power supply.
In light of the incident, preventive measures are being implemented to strengthen the resilience of the power network.
The utility company is also stepping up engagement with third-party contractors to minimise the risk of future accidental cable damage during excavation works.
Customers are encouraged to report any power-related issues via the SEB Cares mobile app and web portal, by contacting the Customer Care Centre at 1300-88-3111, or by chatting with Sesco’s virtual agent, CARINA. — DayakDaily
