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Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd is hoping that Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) will postpone its scheduled maintenance works at the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT) to avoid the implementation of large-scale electricity rationing, which is expected to affect around 600,000 domestic users in Sabah and Labuan.

Sabah Electricity Chief Executive Officer Datuk Ir Ts Mohd Yaakob Jaafar said the rationing is currently planned to take place over seven days, from this Friday until Aug 7, on a rotational basis across the State and Labuan.

“Initially, we anticipated no disruption to electricity supply as we had already discussed the matter with Petronas and the Sabah Energy Commission (ECoS) earlier this year.

“The original plan was to manage the period using diesel fuel. However, based on information we received yesterday (Tuesday), it turns out the facility cannot operate on alternative fuel.

As a result, the grid will lose about 195 Megawatts (MW) of generating capacity over the seven-day period,” he told a press conference at the Sabah Electricity headquarters, here, Wednesday.

Mohd Yaakob said in light of the new developments, a meeting with Petronas has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon to propose a postponement until generation capacity is stabilised.

“This step is necessary and crucial to maintain the stability and integrity of Sabah’s electricity supply system.

“If the maintenance work can be postponed, it will provide much-needed relief for the people of Sabah.

“This is because the power rationing will impact users across Sabah and Labuan during that period, particularly during peak hours between 10am and 10pm. The outages will occur in one- to two-hour rotations,” he said.

He added that Sabah Electricity will work closely with all relevant parties, especially independent power producers (IPPs), ECoS and other stakeholders, to continuously monitor the situation and implement any necessary measures to minimise supply disruptions to consumers.

“The public can obtain information about the locations and timing of power rationing through the Sabah Electricity Facebook page and mobile application,” he said.