JOHOR BARU: There will be another source of electricity supply to ensure that the blackout incident does not happen again at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (CIQ), says an exco member.
Johor works, transportation and infrastructure committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) would be identifying the source of a new electricity supply for the building.
“Currently, there are two sources of electricity supply for BSI CIQ, namely one direct route from TNB and seven sets of generators as additional supply.
“But we are planning to add another power processing unit (PPU) substation as the second direct route for electricity supply from TNB.
“TNB is in the midst of identifying a number of suitable supply routes and will propose to the government in the next few days.
“The work is expected to start next year and will take about a year to be fully implemented.
“Hopefully, there will be no power outage after this,” he told a press conference held at Menara MBJB here yesterday.
He said when work was completed, BSI CIQ would have three sources of electricity supply, namely two direct routes from TNB and the seven sets of generators.
“When there is maintenance work, there will be another direct route from the TNB substation and if there is a disruption, there will be a back-up from the seven sets of generators,” he said.
On Wednesday, travellers between Malaysia and Singapore were surprised that electricity was cut off at BSI CIQ, which is one of the world’s busiest land crossings.
In a notice by TNB, it said there would be power disruption in areas such as Gerbang Perdana PPU substation, BSI CIQ and JB Sentral due to maintenance work from 8pm on Tuesday to 4am Wednesday.
During the disruption, Immigration Department officers and personnel at Immigration counters inside BSI CIQ had to carry out clearance work manually.
One of the seven generators broke down, resulting in total shutdown at 2am before electricity supply was restored at 9.30am on Wednesday.
Following the power disruption, Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi instructed TNB and the Public Works Department to resolve the issue.
“What has happened has been very troublesome for commuters and an embarrassment to the state,” he said in a Facebook post.
