​The Department of Electrical Services (DES), Prime Minister’s Office would like to provide an update to the recent power outage that happened at 11.30 am on the 17th October 2023 affecting majority of the customers across the country. Resources were immediately deployed to minimise the downtime.

Supply was restored in stages beginning 3 hours later at 2.20 pm and most customers received the supply at 9.00 pm with full restoration accomplished at 2.22 am. 

DES would like to extend its sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to all affected customers and would like to inform the public that all necessary actions were undertaken in accordance to our safety procedure. Investigations have revealed that the incident was originated from the disruption in the 66kV transmission system which in turn affected the upstream power stations in Brunei-Muara, Tutong and Belait Districts. The 66kV system disruption was caused by a failure of one of the components at the Tungku 66kV substation. 

A detailed investigation to the root cause of the failure is currently ongoing, which will include among others the evaluation of the whole lifecycle of the affected component. DES has done inspections on other similar installations and has taken appropriate actions accordingly. DES would like to thank members of the public for their kind understanding and cooperation while the Department’s personnel undertake these important mitigation actions. 

DES would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm its commitment in supplying reliable and continuous power services to its customers. For any issues related to power supply, the public may contact the Talian Darussalam 123