Kota kinabalu: The integrated maintenance work at the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal (SOGT), which was initially set to commence on Tuesday, has been postponed to a date yet to be determined, announced Energy Commission of Sabah (ECoS) chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Nasser Abdul Wahid.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the postponement decision was made after considering the current condition of the Sabah electricity grid and the involvement of independent power producers (IPPs). The aim is to ensure that electricity supply rationing does not impact consumers in Sabah and Labuan.

Abdul Nasser highlighted that additional time is needed for testing several IPP power units in Kimanis using alternative diesel fuel and for ongoing repair works at other power plants owned by Sabah Electricity (SE) and IPPs. The decision to delay the maintenance was taken after evaluating the risk of disruption to the electricity grid and the potential effects of postponing the SOGT maintenance work.

SE had initially planned to conduct integrated maintenance from August 1 to 7, which was then rescheduled to August 5 to 11. The maintenance has now been postponed indefinitely, with a new date yet to be announced. SE had anticipated load shedding to occur in Sabah and Labuan post-maintenance, possibly affecting over 600,000 households.