Kuala Lumpur: Tuaran Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau called for energy needs in Sabah to no longer be sidelined and marginalised as has happened in the past.
He said Sabah is in dire need of, for example, gas to generate electricity but Petronas as the country’s main gas supplier is willing to spend RM2 billion just to “take away” gas from Sabah to Bintulu in Sarawak to meet the interests of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) industry.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to lay a gas pipeline from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan? But the generation of energy in Sabah through gas is completely ignored.
“Until today it has been proven that Sabah is facing problems in the generation of electricity supply.
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“Thus I would like to ask what is the outcome of the Trans-Sabah Gas Pipeline project from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan. Will this project continue?
“What has happened to the money that has already been released for the purpose of this project when the project has not even started,” he said when debating to support the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Bill 2023 at the Dewan Rakyat, Tuesday.
Tangau, who is also Chairman of Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), also questioned the construction status of the Southern Link Grid.
“When will this project be implemented? Where did the allocation to build the grid come from?”
The former Federal Science, Technology and Innovation Minister also revealed that Sabah’s failure to use coal to generate electricity in the past was not only due to the opposition of environmental activists but also due to a dispute between stakeholders regarding ownership rights to the coal fire station in Lahad Datu.
“SESB, which is the only utility company fully owned by the Government, has already done a study on this power generation station and was actually more prepared to implement and own the generation in full at that time.
“Finally, the proposal to build a coal-fired power plant with a capacity of 300 MW was cancelled.
“Sabah at that time missed the opportunity to use coal to generate electricity, while until today 40 per cent of energy generation in the Peninsula and around 20 per cent in Sarawak is from coal,” said Tangau.
He said the people of Sabah are proud to be the only region in Malaysia today that does not use coal to generate electricity.
But the State is also the only region that still experiences rationing and the highest Average System Disruption Index (SAIDI) or electricity supply disruption in Malaysia.
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