Circuit trip causes power blackout in Sarawak, 2 million affected
More than two million people in Sarawak have been affected by a blackout that occurred since today evening.
However, the power supply to Kuching city has been fully restored while Miri and Bintulu experienced partial restoration as of 10.45pm tonight.
Most areas of Sarawak plunged into a power blackout this evening, resulting from tripped circuits at the Kemena-Bintulu transmission line at 5.40 pm, said Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) corporate communication manager Ahadiah Zamhari.
She said SEB's engineers and technicians were working to restore power following the blackout that caused a traffic congestion over two kilometres at the Jalan Satok flyover and Jalan Tun Abang Openg junction and other roads here due to the malfunction of the traffic lights.
"We are doing everything within our capacity to restore power as soon as possible and SEB deeply regrets the inconvenience caused to our customers," she said in a statement.
Sarawak Blackout today
She said the blackout could have affected all the regions in Sarawak but SEB had yet to ascertain the extent at the moment.
Electricity was restored in certain areas in the city, including the Poh Kwong Park and Matang, by 6.30 pm.
Meanwhile in Bintulu, civil servant Yati Jaya told Bernama that power supply was fully restored at 8.15pm after the power outage hit the town at 5.40pm.
Kuching residents in Blackout
In Miri, the residents were without electricity until 8.30pm while the blackout had also earlier caused traffic jams in the city centre, especially near shopping complexes.
However, the traffic congestion eased a little around 7.30pm when many of the city folk preferred to stay at home.
In Limbang, however, there was minimal disruption around 6pm and the power supply later returned.
Meanwhile, the social media, especially Twitter, was rife with talks of the blackout. Here are what they are talking about:
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