MIRI, Nov 2: The prolonged denial of entry at the Miri Town 33/11KV Substation by blockaders claiming land rights over Canada Hill has worried Sarawak Energy despite lodging five police reports.
“These denial of entry by blockaders will continue to jeopardise reliable and safe functioning of the critical facility, which supplies the city’s central business district and its surrounding areas,” said Sarawak Energy through their press statement today.
The state energy provider pointed out that the area claimed includes the site on which the substation has been in operation for over 30 years.
“The group has been obstructing the duties of the operations team of Sarawak Energy’s operations arm, Syarikat SESCO Bhd, even denying access into the premise.
“On top of that an extension project located adjacent to the existing substation has been at a standstill for almost to a year now. The new indoor substation was initially targeted to be commissioned in August this year but construction had to stop due to the blockade as well as a matter of safety to all,” it said.
Sarawak Energy said that the denial of entry should stop as the project is a critical component of their RM1 billion investment in the Miri Power Supply Reinforcement Plan to upgrade supply system to meet rapid expansion and rising electricity demand of the people of Miri.
”The ongoing delay is depriving Mirians of their right to a modern and reliable power supply system they are deserving of. The delay has also incurred cost over-runs for this new extension project.”
Sarawak Energy disclosed that it has worked with the assistance of and support from relevant authorities to reach out to the land claimants and appeals for cooperation for all parties on several occasions to explain the criticality of the substation to ensure supply reliability to the people of Miri but gets further resistance from protesters.
“The group has illegally padlocked the substation gates, and this caused delay in supply restoration during an outage. In August this year, supply restoration to an outage affecting Miri City was delayed for about four hours due to this blockade. The technical team only managed to enter the substation to do their job with assistance from the police,” it continued.
The company reiterated that projects to modernise electricity infrastructure must be completed on schedule and on budget otherwise the risk remains of having a system that cannot cope with the growing demands of the state leading to inadequate power supply and reduced reliability.
“Sarawak Energy respects the rights of individuals and organisations in expressing their point of view but requests that this be done in a manner that is lawful.”
It hoped that this blockade do not jeopardise the safe operations of its facilities and also the safety of it their personnel who are carrying out their duties to ensure reliable supply to the people of Miri. — DayakDaily
