SABAH Electricity is pursuing grid automation and digitalisation, including self-healing capabilities to shorten outage restoration times and improve power balancing.
“We are committed to building a modern, reliable and resilient power system that will support Sabah’s economic growth while supporting the energy transition,” said its Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mohd Yaakob Jaafar.
He said this at the 13th Sabah Oil, Gas and Energy Conference and Exhibition’s Executive Plenary Session held at the Sabah International Convention Centre.
The event was organised by Midas Events Management and supported by the State Government and Sabah Convention Bureau. Daily Express is the media partner.
Mohd Yaakob said Sabah Electricity’s grid currently covers between 95 and 96 per cent of Sabah, with only a few pockets of rural areas yet to be connected.
“The primary challenge is delivering power at the most affordable cost across Sabah’s dispersed geography,” he said, noting that infrastructure investment throughout the State’s vast and scattered geography was neither simple nor cheap.
“Improving power quality for industrial areas is also a priority as we upgrade our systems from conventional operating designs to smarter, modern infrastructure,” he added.
On renewable energy integration, he acknowledged that variable renewable energy sources such as solar presented intermittency challenges requiring backup systems such as energy storage to stabilise supply.
“Renewable energy in Sabah is currently not cheap and affordability remains a key consideration alongside reliability,” he said, pointing out the challenge to the State’s ambition of deriving 80 per cent of its power from renewable energy by 2050.
He said the cost of doing business in Sabah for renewable energy is about 20 per cent higher than in Peninsular Malaysia, with factors including logistics, labour and the distance between a proposed plant site and the nearest substation all influencing the price bidders offered under the open market process run by the Energy Commission of Sabah. He said hydropower, often seen as a longer-term renewable option for Sabah, currently could not compete on cost with gas-fired plants, given the large land requirements, complex engineering and the scale of investment needed relative to Sabah’s geography.
“Variable renewable energy sources such as solar also require backup storage to manage intermittency, adding further cost to the system.
“I hope that by 2050, construction costs for complex renewable technologies including hydro would fall enough to allow Sabah Electricity to maintain affordable tariffs for the people of Sabah while meeting the State’s clean energy targets,” he said.
On developing local talent and contractors in the power sector, he said Sabahan companies and technical workers should not limit themselves to projects within the State alone.
“They must be willing to go out of Sabah so that they can maintain their skills, knowledge and the technology adapting into the construction of the power sector,” he said.
He said staying only within Sabah will not allow such companies to grow into national or international players capable of serving the State’s long-term development needs.
“If they only become a player in Sabah and remain in Sabah, I do not think we can grow further,” he said, adding that contractors who ventured beyond Sabah stood a better chance of growing into national or international players capable of bringing advanced skills and experience back to serve the State.
