Weather to blame for Papar village blackout
Published on: Tuesday, January 21, 2020
THE inclement weather which the State experienced was to blame for the lengthy blackout in a Papar village recently. The power in Kg Limpangau-Uvai was disrupted on January 5 and only restored on January 10, much to the frustration of consumers living there.
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A Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) spokeswoman said a damaged component triggered the outage.
She said the company’s staff discovered that a “lightning arrestor,” part of an installation servicing the village, had been incinerated.
“The restoration unit tried several times to reach the village after we first became aware of the problem,” she said.
“Our staff were forced to turn back in each instance because the heavy rains had made the terrain slippery.
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“They were also unable to cross the river which was swollen with the run-off from the downpours.”
Nevertheless, the spokeswoman said, the affected consumers regained power five days later, after the affected component had been replaced.
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MASIL of Papar took SESB to task for the substantial hold-up in restoring the power to the village.
He said his supply went off at around 10.30am on a Sunday and he was still without electricity when he contacted Hotline on Friday.
“I have not had a restful sleep since I lost the electricity in my home,” he said.
“We have been getting by on candles at night.”
Masil said he had wearied of contacting the firm to find out when he would regain his supply.
He estimated that he phoned SESB more than 10 times over the course of the blackout.
“I placed my first call shortly after the electricity first went off on January 5.
“A few days later, I called again and this time I was told that the firm was still trying to determine the cause of the disruption.”
“The person who took my call assured me that the company’s staff were working round the clock and would restore my supply as soon as possible.”
Shortly after this, Masil said he saw some of the company’s staff in the area.
“One of these personnel informed me that an electrical installation here had been damaged.
“I was made to understand a report about this problem would be given to their superiors so that the necessary action could be taken.”
Masil was at a loss to understand why the company had delayed reconnecting the supply to the village which was located about seven kilometres away from the town.
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The resident provided Hotline with the time and date of the outage. This information was forwarded to SESB. (SS)