Sarawak plans undersea power transmission to the peninsula and Singapore

• Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the state has already started discussions with Singapore and the Federal Government for the undersea transmission line but did not provide a timeline for its commencement as it is still building its renewable energy (RE) capacity.

DUBAI (Dec 5): Sarawak is looking at potentially building two undersea transmission lines from the state to the peninsula and Singapore to strengthen its renewable energy agenda.

Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg (pictured) said the state has already started discussions with Singapore and the Federal Government for the undersea transmission line but did not provide a timeline for its commencement as it is still building its renewable energy (RE) capacity.

“We (Sarawak state) are now discussing with the Federal Government over the undersea transmission line at the moment. But first, we need to have the excess energy to share with our neighbours.

“In the past, to build the undersea transmission line was very expensive, but with new technology the cost is more competitive. Right now we are also talking with Singapore to share our energy excess,” he told reporters at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) when asked about the potential grid development to connect Sarawak with its neighbours in the region.

Sarawak had previously expressed interest to export up to 1 gigawatt (GW) of its hydro-generated power to Singapore while Sarawak Energy Bhd said in September that Singapore could be building a 700km undersea transmission line from Sarawak to the country.

Abang Johari said that Sarawak has a competitive advantage in the RE space, and that the state has the potential to generate 20 GW from hydro power. He pointed out that the state government wants to tap into the cascading dam method to improve its hydropower generation instead of reservoirs, as it is more environmentally friendly.

“This has been done in Sweden and the country has been exporting 14 GW to the European region.

“In other words, what we (Sarawak state) are doing is we want to share with our neighboring countries including Indonesia and Singapore as well as peninsular Malaysia our excess energy. For instance, we are already working with Indonesia to share our power generation from one of our hydro projects,” he added.

Abang Johari also said that the state is also looking at the potential of green methanol that would be beneficial to develop both the green economy and marine sector in Sarawak.

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