The Sabah government has outlined three strategies in its Power Development Plan to meet the state’s electricity supply demand.
Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan said the strategies include an immediate solution phase (2023-2025); medium-term (2026-2030); and long-term (after 2030).
For the immediate phase, Nizam said it aims to reach the generation spare capacity margin to a strong level of 30 per cent, among other things ensuring that the capacity has an excess of around 300 megawatts compared to the maximum load of the Sabah grid which now reaches almost 1,100 megawatts.
“For this purpose, several fast-track projects have been decided including a power rental project with a capacity of 224 megawatts that will operate on the east coast of Sabah at the end of this year.
“In addition, various other mitigation actions are being and will be implemented to increase the level of reliability of existing power plants,” he said in response to a question by Dr Daud Yusof (Warisan-Bongawan) at the state assembly sitting here today.
As for mid-term, Nizam said among other things, it includes the addition of generation capacity from hydro sources amounting to around 400 megawatts and large-scale solar projects amounting to 100 megawatts.
In addition to that, he said, there is also a 275 kiloVolt main transmission line project which is the completion of the transmission line connecting the Sabah grid with Sarawak as well as the Southern Link transmission line project that will connect Sipitang and Tawau.
“This will strengthen the capacity and stability of the Sabah grid to receive large load requests, especially from industrial users in the future,” he said.
Nizam said the long-term solution phase outlined in the plan will focus on enhancing the potential of hydroelectricity in Sabah through the findings of the Hydro Development Plan study being implemented by the Energy Commission of Sabah (ECoS).
He said exploration of new technologies and sources of power generation will also be carried out such as Geothermal, Wind, Hydrogen and Battery Energy Storage System, in addition to exploring plans to connect the transmission line between Sabah and North Kalimantan, based on the results of a feasibility study that will be done this year.
The Sabah and Federal governments, through the Sabah Electricity Supply and Tariff Planning and Implementation Committee meeting on June 12 had also approved the Generation Development Plan to meet the needs of consumers, he added.
Nizam said the meeting took into account two aspects, firstly organic growth, including the projected increase in common load requirements, namely the increase in domestic users and users in other categories as well as the ‘Step Load’ load requirements by users from large and committed industries.
He said the Sabah government will take full regulatory control of electricity supply and renewable energy on Jan through a special state assembly sitting on Jan 3 next year.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency
