By Yap Leng Kuen
KUALA LUMPUR: 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) is awaiting clarification on the Bakun undersea cable transmission to assess the impact of a potentially larger supply of hydropower on its projects in Sarawak.
“News that the Bakun undersea cable project to Peninsular Malaysia may not take off has changed the plans and there has emerged an urgent need to pull up industries that can use all that energy,’’ said 1MDB CEO Shahrol Halmi.
Early this year, 1MDB signed an agreement with power utility giant State Grid Corp of China (SGCC) to carry out a number of multi-billion ringgit joint-venture projects in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score).
According to reports, the two parties will set up a joint-venture company to pursue projects that would generate US$11bil worth of economic value.
SGCC is reported to be investing between US$6bil and US$8bil to set up one of the world’s largest aluminium smelter plants (estimated to involve US$3bil) and three hydro-electric dams in Sarawak through this cooperation with 1MDB.
“The project will take in a few new factors now,’’ said Shahrol. “We are awaiting clarification on where the Bakun Dam will supply power to.
“If the Government sees a role for us to play, we will bring more investors to Sarawak to use that power,’’ he said.
Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin said in February that Bakun would initially supply Sarawak’s needs first before expanding to the peninsula.
Under the proposed plan, the cable project involving the construction of a 1,000km high-voltage direct-current transmission line and a 680-km undersea cable, was expected to be completed in 2015 with an open tender process to be launched in the first quarter of this year. Each cable would be able to transmit 800MW.
The Bakun dam project, with an installed capacity of 2,400MW, is expected to turn up some 300MW of juice by next month and to be fully commissioned by October 2011.
It was announced in February that Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary’s controlled GIIG Holdings Sdn Bhd had tied up with Aluminium Corp of China Ltd (Chalco) to develop a US$1bil smelter plant with an initial capacity of 330,000 tonnes per year in Samalaju Industrial Park in Bintulu. The plant will need some 600MW of electricity.
Another multi-billion ringgit aluminium smelter being planned in the same industrial area is by a 60:40 joint venture between Rio Tinto Alcan and Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd with an initial capacity of 550,000 tonnes a year.
A memorandum of understanding was signed back in 2008 for Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) to supply between 900MW and 1,200MW of power to this smelter, presumably also from Bakun.
