SEB sets up team to probe Sarawak blackout

Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) has set up a team to probe the cause of the widespread blackout for more than six hours in Sarawak last night, SEB chief executive officer Torstein Dale Sjtveit said today.

He said the investigation would be carried out to maximise the learning SEB could get from "this very serious incident".

"Just before this incident, the system had a total load and supply of 1555 megawatts (MW). In this incident, the Bakun hydro-electric plant, which at the time had a load of 884 MW, dropped its load (supply) by 456 MW in 10 seconds, causing a serious frequency drop to below 47.5hz in the system. The normal operating frequency in Sarawak is 50hz.

"We lost 456 MW from the Bakun hydro-electric plant. When this happens, you will have a frequency drop in the system because demand is much higher than supply," he told a news conference, here.

Sjtveit said that to protect the integrity of all the other generators in the system, safety tripping was automatically activated, resulting in the shutdown of all other power stations in the grid, termed as a 'No Recovery Situation'.

"Within 10 minutes, we initiated the 'Blackout Restoration Plan' to restart all the generation plants with the following results: Batang Ai hydro-electric power dam (HEP) at 5.53 pm, Tun Abdul Rahman Power Station at 5.56 pm, Bintulu Power Station at 6.21 pm and Miri at 7.45 pm.

"Bakun was only able to be synchronised to the grid after 10 pm. Two power islands were created in North and South Sarawak while Bakun was delayed, leading to a serious delay in restoring power supply to Sibu," he said.

He said the state grid was re-established by 11.30 pm and all loads were fully restored by 2.07 am.

Commenting on the denial by the operator of the Bakun Dam that they were not responsible for the statewide blackout yesterday, Sjtveit said the Bakun operator might not have got a clear picture of the situation as it was too early then.

A newspaper report had quoted Bakun Dam chief engineer Zulkifle Osman as saying that the dam was not the source of the blackout as there was no major technical breakdown before the blackout.