Sarawak Premier mulls two dedicated undersea cable projects to Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia

DUBAI: Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the development of two dedicated undersea cables to Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore to channel its hydropower energy is under discussion in a move to amplify the use of renewable energy.

“We are now discussing with the federal government, but first is the question of whether we have the excess energy.

“At the moment we have the excess energy, then we can share with our neighbours. Now we are dealing with Singapore, which has been agreed by both prime ministers (recently),“ he told the media after visiting the Malaysia Pavilion at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) here today.

The premier noted that there is an improved technology for undersea cables which is competitively cheaper to ensure the project can be realised. However, he did not mention any specific timeline.

Abang Johari said the state government is in the process of expanding its hydro energy capacity to generate 20 gigawatt (GW) of power.

He highlighted that the state government is now trying to improve its approach to generate hydro energy using a cascading dam method instead of a reservoir which is more suitable for the environment.

“This has been done in Sweden and it has been exporting 40GW of power to Europe.

“What we want to do now is to share with our neighbours, on the domestic level, of course, with Malaysia, then with Singapore and Indonesia, the latter with which we are sharing one hydro project,“ he added.–Bernama