KUCHING: Sarawak Energy (SEB) shared its experience on sustainable hydropower dam developments and their importance to Sarawak’s energy transition and socio-economic development recently.
SEB, in a statement today (March 30), said this happened at the second International Conference on Dam Safety Management and Engineering 2023 (ICDSME2023) at the Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur on March 16-17.
SEB’s chief executive officer Datuk Sharbini Suhaili, as the keynote speaker, highlighted that the corporation was committed to the San Jose Declaration on sustainable hydropower development and that dam safety was a top priority.
He said SEB’s Dam Safety Programme, which was aligned with international best practices as part of the company’s commitment to the safe construction and operation of its hydropower dams, aimed to mitigate any risks to upstream and downstream communities.
“Our policy on dam safety ensures the safety of our dams at all times as it is a vital factor in the continuity of our hydropower projects and to safeguard our people, our environment and our operations,” he said.
Sharbini also highlighted SEB’s commitment to maximising the beneficial impacts of its operations and minimising any potential negative impacts and underlined the company’s ambition to establish itself as a regional powerhouse.
“This has only been possible through our hydropower potential which we have harnessed to deliver benefits for Sarawak, and through which we are looking at the next staircase of growth – by positioning ourselves as a sustainable battery of the ASEAN region.”
Organised by the Malaysian National Committee on Large Dams (MYCOLD), ICDSME2023 comprised keynote presentations and focused sessions on topics related to the planning, design, operation, maintenance and upgrading of dam safety.
Themed ‘Resilient Dams for Safe Communities’, the two-day conference saw the attendance of about 450 professionals and experts in dam safety and engineering-related fields.
Meanwhile, at the ICDSME2023 Conference Dinner at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on March 16, SEB was honoured with several awards, including the ‘MYCOLD Best Operator Award (Dam Safety Programme Category) awarded to the Bakun Hydroelectric Plant (HEP).
The award was presented to Sharbini, who also received a Special Appreciation Award from the organiser.
Two senior engineers, Felix Farentino Bujang and Frankie Bujum, who work for Murum HEP and Bakun HEP respectively, were also recognised as Certified Dam Safety Inspectors during the same event.
On the final day of ICDSME2023, SEB’s senior engineer, Farah Hanan Tipol was honoured with the ‘Best Technical Paper Award – Dam Safety Review and Risk Assessment’ for her paper entitled: ‘Evacuation Time Estimation for Flood Event under Hypothetical Total Dam Breach Scenario Using Weibull Distribution: Case Study for Batang Ai Hydroelectric Plant’.
