TIGHT LIPPED : Awang Tengah speaking to reporters after the monthly state cabinet meeting.
KUCHING: Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) and Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd (Sarawak Hidro) will seal the power purchase agreement (PPA) for Bakun Hydroelectric dam in Kuala Lumpur on June 1.
We will sign an agreement on the first of June to buy the power from Bakun at certain specific price, which is quite favourable to the state. – Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud , Chief Minister
In announcing the deal, Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said the power from Bakun dam would be exclusively used for the Sarawak’s industries.
“We will sign an agreement on the first of June to buy the power from Bakun at certain specific price, which is quite favourable to the state,” he told the press after chairing the monthly state cabinet meeting at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here, yesterday.
However, Taib did not disclose the cost and when asked whether the electricity generated by Bakun dam would be sold at six sen per kilowatt hour, he replied: “You want me to say something before the ceremony?”
Public Utilities Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan also refused to reveal the cost but said it would be revealed during the signing ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on the first day of Gawai Festival.
The Second Planning and Resource Management Minister said the Bakun dam was expected to produce about 300 megawatts of electricity when the first turbine started operation at the earliest in July this year.
He also confirmed that the state government was imposing some amount as water levy on Sarawak Hidro annually.
“The levy for water to generate electricity has to be charged but I am not sure how much. It was in the licence before. That is one of the conditions when we issued the licence for Bakun,” he said.
Awang Tengah added the levy would continue even after the Bakun dam came into operation.
According to a government portal, the Bakun dam, located on the Balui River in the upper Rejang River basin and 37km upstream from Belaga, is the world’s second tallest concrete rock-filled dam.
When all the eight turbines become fully operational, the Bakun dam will be able to generate up to 2,400 megawatts of electricity.
Sarawak Hidro, a wholly-owned unit of the Ministry of Finance, is the developer of the dam.