KUCHING: SESCO Berhad has recorded 48 cases of underground cable damage in 2025, which were identified as being caused by the construction work of the Kuching Urban Transportation (KUT) Project, Pan Borneo Highway and others.
SESCO Berhad Chief Executive Officer, Lau Kim Swee, said the incident not only caused power supply disruptions to consumers, but also posed a serious safety risk to technical personnel carrying out repair work in the field.
According to him, underground cable damage usually causes sudden power outages, thus affecting the daily activities of the public and business operations in the affected areas.
“When underground cables are damaged, power supply disruptions are bound to occur and this is inconvenient for consumers. At the same time, the situation also endangers the safety of our operators who are forced to work in high-risk situations,” he explained.
He said this when met after the Sarawak Energy Media Appreciation Night at a leading hotel in Kuching on Friday.
In this regard, Lau stressed that all parties involved in excavation and construction works should be more careful and disciplined, especially when carrying out work near SESCO's electrical cable routes.
He said that SESCO consistently carries out announcements and reminders to contractors to contact the company first before starting any excavation work, through the 'Call Before You Dig' initiative.
"When contractors contact us, SESCO will immediately send a technical team to the project site to identify the existing cable routes and provide the necessary guidance," he explained.
He added that the requirement does not only apply to large-scale projects such as ART or KUT, but rather involves all construction projects, regardless of size or location.
"Any party wishing to carry out construction work must obtain confirmation from SESCO first so that we can help identify the cable routes and subsequently avoid any unwanted incidents," he said.
Also present were Sarawak Energy Group Chief Operating Officer, Dato' Ir. James Ung and Senior Vice President, Corporate Services, Siti Aisah Adenan. - UKASnews
