Pangi Hydro Station to start ops Mid-July
Published on: Thursday, June 13, 2024
A worker doing restoration work in a tunnel at SJHTP.
Tenom: The Pangi Hydro Power Station (SJHTP) is expected to start operations from mid-July this year, according to Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB).
The station is expected to be fully operational by the end of November 2024.
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SESB, in a statement Wednesday, said the repair of SJHTP is being actively implemented.
Initially, the target completion date was March 2024 for the first turbine, June 2024 for the second turbine and September 2024 for the third turbine, while the station is scheduled to be operational again in March 2024.
However, following various obstacles and challenges faced by SESB in carrying out the restoration works of the hydro station, the new target set to generate the first hydro unit is in mid-July this year.
The cleaning of the tunnel is expected to be completed by the end of June and will be followed by wet commissioning by channelling river water into the tunnel and starting to rotate the turbine.
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“The cleaning and restoration work that occurred at SJHTP following the mud flood that hit the station at the end of 2022 is still ongoing,” said SESB Generation General Manager Ir. Addie Ahmad.
“Hydro water tunnel cleaning work is also actively carried out by an appointed contractor. The re-cleaning work is not easy because it involves cleaning mud, large rocks and piles of wood that were washed away when the mud flood happened.
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“Another contractor has been appointed to repair the three hydro turbines,” he said.
SESB is also in the process of implementing permanent slope protection in critical areas along the entrance to the station to mitigate future landslides.
Addie said five teams are working hard to cover a total distance of 8km to go back and forth repeatedly in the tunnel to clean the mud and wood that are still present in the powerhouse and surge tank.
“SESB and the contractor have also used methods that do not involve any blasting activities to crush large rocks to facilitate the removal process,” he said.
On the night of October 31, 2022, major damage was caused to the civil structure and the generating plant of the station due to landslides and mud floods. The incident also caused all three turbines to be damaged and stopped working.
The disaster resulted in SESB losing 66MW of generating capacity from SJHTP.
The repair cost so far has reached RM60 million.
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