KOTA KINABALU: The Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water is amending the Electricity Supply Act 1990 to give it more punch and to keep up with the latest development in the industry.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili, said his ministry aimed to table the amended bill in parliament this year and subsequently enforce the amended law.
“The amendment is to enable the optimisation of the existing infrastructure so as to increase the economic returns and strengthen the nation’s electrical supply industry. It is also to enable the existing infrastructure to be used for communication purpose.
“We believe, the other reasons why we are amending the existing act are, to attract more investors since the electrical supply infrastructure can be used for communication purposes, to ensure the proposed projects can be implemented holistically so that the objectives of the restructuring of the electricity supply industry can be achieved and also to increase the safety aspect of the electrical equipment and hence reduce the occurrence of electrical supply related accidents,” he said at the Sabah Electrical Association 18th Anniversary Dinner at Dewan Hakka on Saturday.
Maximus stressed all the proposed amendments are to ensure that a sustainable, efficient and reliable power supply is in operation in the country.
In addition to having firm control over the regulatory aspects, Maximus added the ministry also established the Sustainable Energy Development Authority and Renewable Energy Act to spearhead the development in Feed-In-Tariff mechanism to Sabah since January last year.
“We hope that with the introduction of the Feed-In-Tariff, the renewable energy industry will gain momentum in Sabah and the industry players will be able to capitalise on the abundance of biomass and palm oil mill effluent to supply green energy from renewable energy to the remote areas where the grid electricity infrastructure is too costly to build.
“As of 2014, the generation energy mix in Sabah is gas 83 per cent, hydro seven per cent, medium fuel oil six per cent, diesel two per cent and renewable energy from biomass is two per cent. To diversify the fuel mix and enhance security of fuel supply, we will take steps to further enhance the contribution from renewable energy sources in Sabah,” he added.
Maximus also revealed that the federal government has given its full support which is evident by the RM8.81 billion financial funding given to Sabah over the years in the form of fuel subsidies, loans and SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) related grants.
“I am glad to announce that we have seen a gradual improvement in the Sabah SAIDI figures from 2,867 minutes in 2009 to 552 minutes in 2014 although our SAIDI target in Sabah is 350 last year.
“We are unable to achieve the target because we have several major supply interruptions last year such as 13 manual and emergency load sheddings last year as well as three incidents of under frequency load shedding.
“Pursuant to the statewide blackout on January 17 2014, the ministry together with the Energy Commission, SESB and TNB have conducted a detailed analysis of the contributing factors and have been taking mitigating steps to improve at the distribution level which is now the major contributor to the SAIDI. As such, the government has set a target of 280 for this year for Sabah,” he added.
To further the federal commitment to Sabah, Maximus further explained that the cabinet has approved an allocation of RM2.3 billion to implement 81 projects over the period of 2015-2020.
“RM74.9 million has been approved for this year to SESB under Rolling Plan 4 of the 10th Malaysia Plan to implement 23 projects to improve Sabah and Labuan electricity supply.
“The total cost for these projects is RM1.7 billion which are divided into two categories namely Grant Allocations (RM16.9 million) and Government Soft Loan Allocations (RM58 million).
“There are 16 projects under Grant Allocations which are eight transmission projects, seven distribution projects and one feasibility study for hydro project. Meanwhile, there are seven projects under Government Soft Loan Allocations which are one distribution project and six projects post blackout,” he said.
He concluded that full cooperation of the multiple stakeholders in Sabah will create a new era for the state power industry.
Also present at the event were president of the Sabah Electrical Association,Teh Bung Nee and president of Electrical and Electronics Association of Malaysia, Ir. Chew Shee Fuee.