[UPDATED] Sabah energy issues: powership leasing plan dropped

THE leasing of powerships to solve power woes in Sabah has been cancelled, Assistant Chief Minister Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan told the assembly today.

He said the plan was dropped by the Planning of Electricity Supply and Tariffs Committee, which was seeking alternatives.

“The negotiations for a power purchase agreement between Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) and Karpowership was under the supervision of the Energy Commission of Malaysia.

“However, an agreement between SESB and Karpowership Global could not be reached and the SESB board of directors decided to terminate negotiations on September 15. This was informed in an official letter to the Energy Commission of Sabah (ECS) and Karpowership Global.

“A follow-up meeting on this decision was held between the natural resources, environment and climate change minister, Sabah and Sarawak affairs minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, ECS, SESB and the Energy Commission, which resulted in the cancellation of the project and for an alternative plan to be proposed by SESB and ECS,” he said.

The leasing of the 224MW powership was part of a fast-track project to address critical back-up electricity capacity issues with a five-year lease period (2023-2028). It was initially approved by the Electricity Supply and Tariff Planning and Implementation Committee on June 12.

Meanwhile, Nizam said Sabah has divided its Power Development Plan into three phases – immediate solution phase (2023-2025), medium-term solution phase (2026-2030) and long-term solution phase (post-2030).

“This power development plan takes into account organic growth such as projections for the increase in load demand, including the growth of domestic consumers and small-category consumers, and step load demand by users from large industries committed to the plan,” he said.

In the immediate phase, work will focus on improving the state’s reserve margin to 30% by leasing diesel-based power generation in stages, he said.

“These immediate measures will restore spare capacity to a robust level,” he said.

The medium-term solution phase involves increasing generation capacity from hydro sources by about 400MW, Large Scale Solar projects by 100MW, and other generation projects.

“There are major transmission line projects such as the connection of the Sabah grid with Sarawak’s and the Southern Link transmission project.

“This will further strengthen the capacity and stability of the Sabah grid to accommodate large load demands, especially from industrial users in the future,” he said.

He said the long-term solution phase would focus on enhancing Sabah’s hydroelectric potential via the Hydro Development Plan currently under the ECS.

“Exploration of new technologies and generation sources such as geothermal, wind, and hydrogen will be implemented. The planning of a cross-border transmission line between Sabah and North Kalimantan will also be explored based on a feasibility study to be conducted later this year,” he said. – The Vibes, November 30, 2023.