Lower electricity bills next year

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Hydro power, war on power thefts enable state govt to reduce electricity tariffs from next January

BEARING GOOD NEWS: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem (third right) arrives at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Complex in Petra Jaya, Kuching yesterday. Adenan gave his winding up speech on the last day of the DUN sitting.

 

KUCHING: The state government will revise downward electricity tariffs for all domestic customers in the state effective January next year.

Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem who made this announcement at the final day of the DUN sitting yesterday said as a result, almost 60,000 customers will join the 70,000 already eligible for the Federal Government’s RM20 subsidy.

“This means that approximately 130,000 low income customers in Sarawak will receive a zero monthly bill,” he said, adding the government had carefully designed the tariff revision to provide
the greatest assistance to low income customers for this purpose.

He said for the 50,000 customers not eligible for the federal government subsidy and were consuming up to 150 units per month, the tariff will be reduced by more than 40 per cent.

Furthermore, the 50,000 customers consuming between 150 and 200 units will get a reduction in tariff of 30 per cent.

Those 80,000 customers presently consuming between 200 and 300 units per month will get a reduction in tariff of just below 20 per cent.

The 50,000 consumers presently consuming between 300 and 400 units per months will benefit from a reduction of around 10 per cent.

The final 125,000 customers, with the largest monthly consumption of more than 400 units, will get a reduction of between two and four per cent.

“In total, 240,000 customers or close to 50 per cent of SEB’s customers will benefit from a tariff reduction of between 20 per cent and more than 40 per cent,” Adenan said.

He pointed out that the average electricity tariffs in Sarawak across domestic, commercial and industrial users were already the lowest in Malaysia.

He added that two significant milestones allowed the state government to provide further relief for our domestic customers.

Firstly, he said the lower cost of the new energy from Murum will reduce SEB’s average cost of supply thus creating financial capacity for the tariff revision.

This is consistent with the state government’s long term strategy to move away from high cost fossil fuels supplies to lower cost renewable energy.

Secondly, the value of the power that was lost due to power theft in the State has been cut by more than half since 2010.

By avoiding the cost of generating the power that was being stolen, Sarawak Energy Berhad now has greater financial capacity to reduce the tariff.

“This outcome validates the government’s strong determination to attack power theft and stand up for the 90 per cent or more of customers who have never been involved in power theft.

“The government is grateful to the Ministry of Public Utilities, SEB and the police for pursuing the fight against power theft, and for the courage and persistence of their officers in the face of intimidation by gangsters and the ill-founded criticism of this noble initiative,” he said.

He had also informed that over the past several years, SEB has signed 12 Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) with bulk customers for a combined load of 2,570 MW.

On Nov 14, SEB signed another PPA with Comtec Solar International (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd with total investment of RM1.2 billion and to create around 1,300 job opportunities at its solar wafer manufacturing plant in Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone here.

The commissioning of the Murum hydro-electric plant is well underway and will provide clean, renewable and affordable power to Sarawak for many decades to come.

“I am pleased to inform that in October this year, SEB had signed a major contract for the construction of the Balingian coal fired power plant.

“SEB is also making steady progress on the construction of the 500kV State Transmission backbone and is investing more than RM400 million in new transmission and distribution infrastructure to cope with the rapid growth of Miri,” he pointed out.

Adenan added that very few places in the world could maintain the same electricity tariffs since 1992.

“We are proud that electricity tariffs in Sarawak are already the lowest in Malaysia and among the lowest in the Asean region,” he said.