Published on: Dailyexpress Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah DAP claimed many power stations in Sandakan were not functioning properly, causing much inconvenience to the people.
MP Dr Hiew King Cheu, in a statement, said he learned about the matter following a visit to all the power generating facilities in the district aimed at understanding further the real cause of the power cuts, failure and shortage in the area.
The inspection team visited facilities such as the Gantisan power barge (2x20MW), IPP-Sandakan Power (4x8MW), Libaran Power (4x15MW), Kina Biopower (1x10MW), Labuk (3x4.74MW), Batu Sapi (3x8MW) and (2x14MW), and a jet turbine power generator (1x20 MW).
"According to calculations, the total output is 228.22MW. This is 30 per cent of the whole of Sabah's requirement of 750MW.
"Just for Sandakan alone there is a total requirement of 220MW. Very unfortunately, this is not the real picture, because the Sandakan power facilities are in a very poor stage. "During the inspection last Sunday, the team found that most of the power generators were practically not functioning, namely the Gantisan Power Barge, Batu Sapi Station and the jet turbine in Batu Sapi."
Hiew said with so many power generators in Sandakan out of service (seven out of 20) and a power loss of 98MW out of 228.22 MW, there was little wonder why the Sandakan people were upset over the power supply.
"The power cuts and load shedding in Sandakan town are getting more serious nowadays. "There is little effort being put to repair and upgrade the facilities, or at least there should be some concerted effort and plans to bring in new, big and efficient power generators to give Sandakan its power supply.
"The existing generator sets are worn out with low output efficiency, and might break down anytime É what will happen then? How long do the Sandakan folk have to wait for a steady power supply?"
Hiew viewed the situation as critical in Sandakan and asked who was to blame for the matter. It is the Government they should point their finger at. The Barisan Nasional government seems powerless to help the folk in Sandakan.
"The DAP is calling on these people to bring back the power supply to Sandakan, failing which they would be failing the Sandakan people who had voted them to their seats."
