Trip at substation cause of power outage at Matang

KUCHING: The power outage at Matang on Saturday was caused by tripping at the Matang 275kV substation, said Sarawak Energy Bhd ( SEB) in a statement yesterday.

It explained the malfunction at the substation was being investigated with preliminary results indicating that road construction in the area might have affected underground cables, while the cause of the switchgear fault is still under investigation.

SEB expressed regret over the inconvenience caused to its customers in Matang by Saturday’s outage, adding that the tripping caused a loss of supply to some parts of Matang and affecting some 5,000 customers.

“The outages occurred when tripping at the Matang 275kV substation caused a loss of supply to some parts of Matang, affecting some 5,000 customers.

“At around 8.30am, faults on 11kV underground cables caused tripping at the substation followed by a high voltage switchgear fault at Matang 33/11kV substation at around 11am.

“The technical team was deployed immediately and supply was restored to some customers within half an hour. However, due to the extensiveness of the damage and complexity of the repair work, the team was still conducting repair work at 6pm. To manage the situation, supply to some affected customers was transferred to other feeders,” it said in a statement issued here.

SEB appeals to customers to be patient while repair works are being carried at the substation.

“Matang substation is currently being upgraded to reinforce reliability of supply to the area with a new 33/11kV substation to be completed by the end of 2018 and a new 275/132 kV substation in 2020.”