Sabah's SESB loses RM60m a year to power theft in squatter colonies

Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) faces RM60 million in losses annually to electricity theft that runs rampant in slum areas in Sabah, says its chief executive officer Mohd Yaakob Jaafar.

He said the theft was very significant and to curb it, SESB took measures by implementing a special Independent Power Distributor (IPD) project using prepaid meters to supply electricity to the areas involved.

“There are many squatter colonies where electricity theft has been identified, for example in Kampung Hidayat Tawau. It is very obvious, as soon as we entered the area we found a nest of wires crisscrossing here and there.

“Hence, the prepaid meter is an SESB strategy to curb electricity theft. We have implemented it in Kampung Flores, Sandakan and we will implement it in other areas in Sabah.

“Apart from slums in Tawau, we are targeting Kampung Puyut, Lahad Datu, and many settlements where theft of electricity frequently occurs, as well as in Kota Kinabalu,” he said in Tawau yesterday.

According to Yaakob, the IPD concept is a method approved by the state government, with SESB appointing a concessionaire to supply electricity in the involved areas. The payment charge for the non-subsidised tariff is about 47 sen.

“We don’t want members of the public to get electrocuted due to faulty cables, looking at the wiring that is stretched out haphazardly and when stepped on, can be deadly,” he added.

Regarding the power outage that lasted for 17 hours in Kampung Pasir Putih in Tawau on Wednesday, he said the transformer at a substation suffered damage and replacement work was being carried out.

“Regarding Wednesday’s incident, originally it was a scheduled shutdown of electricity supply for upgrading work to be done on an SESB cable.

“However, when we were almost finished, we were into the re-switching stage when one of the substations suddenly tripped. As of yesterday, replacement work was ongoing. We have to rely on mobile generator sets to keep critical systems running,” he added.

Yaakob said consumers facing problems with electrical equipment damage could lodge a complaint at the SESB Tawau office and bring documents including a police report and photo evidence of the damage.

- Bernama

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