Faced with constant blackouts, Sabah electric company chairman says renewable energy sources not stable enough to power the state

KOTA KINABALU, Aug 4 — Coal and gas are still the best options to supply Sabah’s electricity needs even though they come with their own challenges, according to Tuaran MP Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau.

Tangau who is also Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd chairman said the newer “green” energy sources are considered too unreliable for now to supply the entire state.

“We have talked about solar a lot, but we don’t have enough sunlight to keep power storage, and the batteries are expensive. So solar energy cannot address our baseload needs.

“Hydro power is also a consideration but our water flow is also not consistent enough to address baseload.

“Geothermal and wind power was also proposed, but has limitations. There has been all kinds of technology and proposals and we are happy to consider, but none of them has the consistency for major power,” he said in a pre-recorded video talk on the Facebook page of a local grassroots group calling itself the Sabah Way Forward aired last night.

Speaking on the programme titled “Solving Sabah's blackouts”, Tangau said there have been multiple proposals over the years involving various renewable sources of power, but none have the consistent capacity of coal or gas that could significantly impact the state’s power woes.

The state currently has power generation capacity of some 1200mw, which includes from independent power producers, but the reserve margin is at 12 per cent, which is considered low. A safe margin is around 30 per cent, which means at least another 300mw is needed.

“For stability, gas is the best option, but we need supply and support from Petronas due to the costs. International market gas is expensive,” he said.

Tangau said that a coal-generated plant was still the best option for energy plans as it was the cheapest and stable, and is widely used in the peninsula and other developed countries including Taiwan.

However, the state’s efforts to build a 300mw mega coal fire plant more than a decade ago was put off following protest by conservation groups.

“In Sabah, there are too many people romancing the environment. If plans had gone ahead, we would have 300mw and our SAIDI would be much lower at 200 minutes or so,” Tangau said.

SAIDI is the acronym for system average interruption duration index which is the average number of minutes of power disruption. The state average is currently at 298 minutes per year.

Tangau addressed national power company’s Tenaga Nasional Berhad’s goal of moving into renewable energy sources but acknowledged that Sabah was still behind in this regard, with only a small percentage of its energy source considered renewable energy.

“There are a few biomass plants but not much. I would say we are not quite there. The government is encouraging large scale solar. But as a state, technology is slowly improving,” he said.

The Tadau Energy solar plant is Kudat generates some 15mw of energy, Tenom Pangi hydroelectric dam generates 66mw and Telekosang hydro dam generates some 25mw.

He said that he hoped more private companies would start to tap into the business of renewable energy and one way to encourage this was more subsidies and tax incentives for the private sector by including this into their building or project design

“Global companies like Google and Facebook need lots of energy to power their data centres and they require renewable energy as part of their contract. Perhaps Malaysian businesses can tap into this market and sell energy to Singapore where these companies are based,” he said.

Addressing the state’s constant power blackouts, Tangau said that there were only interim solutions in place as the state still lacks the funds and capacity to fuel its baseline needs.

For instance, Sabah has some 5,000km of power cables without a protective coating causing it to trip from minor disturbances such as wildlife.

“We need protective coating, which is underway but requires over RM1 billion in funding and will take over 20 years to complete if no large-scale exercise is carried out to have them replaced, he said.

Tangau said another way to reach a zero blackout status quickly was for national gas company Petronas to prioritise its gas supply for Sabah for generation at a subsidised rate.

“Ultimately, we cannot solve it if there is no baseline solution. We need to generate more power. But we cannot if projects, like the dams, keep on getting cancelled. We hope to solve this and move forward,” he said.