Sabah aims to increase power supply through fast-track programme

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah hopes to increase its energy supply by some 600MW through a fast-track initiative to meet power demands in the state within a year.

This will include speeding up certain projects that had been lined up under the Sabah Energy Roadmap and Master Plan 2040 (SE-RAMP 2040), which was launched last Sept 19.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said the main factor contributing to the state’s power woes was the low power generation capacity and a surge in consumer demand, up to 1,100MW from the usual 900MW within a year.

This was due to the rapidly growing economy in Sabah, he said.

“As such, the state government’s main focus is to ensure the short-term power generation development plan is implemented on a fast-track basis to achieve a 30% generation spare capacity as soon as possible,” he said during a one-day special Sabah state assembly sitting on Wednesday (Jan 3).

He said that the state will rent diesel-fueled generator sets to provide up to 100MW of power in phases, starting with 40MW last December and the remaining 60MW this March.

Hajiji said a proposed project to install a 100MW battery energy storage system (BESS), which was supposed to be completed in 2026, will be brought forward to this year.

He said the state will also lease a 100MW gas-based plant for the interim period until a permanent 100MW facility is fully constructed.

Besides that, he added, a large-scale solar project that will supply 62MW of power will be completed this year, while the diesel-fueled plant providing 70MW of energy in Tawau will be continued.

“Power generation utilising green energy resources under the feed-in tariff programme, such as mini-hydro with a capacity of 31.6MW and biogas that could supply 5.6MW, will be operational in 2024.

“Another large-scale solar project providing 100MW of power will commence in 2025,” Hajiji said.

To ensure sustainable generation capacity, he added, medium and long-term plans will be implemented that would, among others, ramp up power generation through hydro resources by some 400MW and another 100MW through large-scale solar initiatives.

He said establishing a 275-kilovolt transmission line connecting Sabah and Sarawak, as well as the Southern Link transmission connection, is expected to strengthen the state’s grid capacity and stability further.

“This will enable the state to accept heavy load demands, especially from industrial consumers in the future,” Hajiji said.