KUCHING: Sarawak is poised to play a key role in the region’s push to transition towards renewable energy.
It is leveraging on hydropower in pursuing a sustainable, affordable and secure energy future for the state and beyond its borders.
“From 2010 to 2020, we were able to decarbonise our power system by more than 70 percent and share our renewable energy resources with neighbouring countries such as West Kalimantan, Indonesia, through interconnections since 2016,” said Sarawak Energy (SEB) Group chief executive officer Datuk Sharbini Suhaili.
He revealed plans to also start exporting power to Sabah by the end of 2023.
“This enables us to make a significant contribution to the region’s carbon emission reduction efforts while also enhancing the resiliency of the energy transition,” he said in a statement on Sunday (Nov 14).
SEB shared its energy development strategy with international energy thought leaders, experts and professionals during a panel discussion at the virtual Conference of the Electricity Power Supply Industry (CEPSI) 2021 recently.
The conference, themed ‘Energised Countries, Empowered Communities’, aims to bring together power industry stakeholders to strengthen ties and create synergies to promote energy sustainability and social inclusion through various programmes throughout November, with the conference scheduled to run until Nov 25.
At the session titled ‘Executive Talks: Decarbonising Power Through Balanced Energy Solutions for Security and Sustainability’, Sharbini disclosed how Malaysia’s largest renewable energy developer is advancing renewable hydropower as part of its efforts to decarbonise Sarawak’s power system and drive a sustainable energy future.
He stated that the governments of Sarawak and Malaysia had aligned with the increased global focus on renewable energy transition by demonstrating strong support for energy transition in Asean.
Sharbini revealed that earlier this year, large hydropower was designated as a renewable energy source at the national level, and that this entailed recognising Sarawak’s hydropower generation capacity into meeting the national renewable energy target of 40 percent by 2035.
“Sarawak leverages on renewable hydropower to balance energy security, affordability and sustainability, allowing for a holistic approach to energy development.
“As a result, our people have access to reliable, affordable and predominantly renewable electricity.”
In a related development, SEB is also collaborating with Swedfund International AB on a Variable Renewable Energy Penetration Study to better understand and plan the integration of variable renewable energy, particularly solar, into Sarawak’s future grid system as part of its efforts to decarbonise power system.
SEB uses solar and mini hydro installations under the Sarawak Accelerated Rural Electrification Scheme (SARES) to light up Sarawak’s rural communities in areas too remote to be connected to the main grid in order to meet its full electrification target for Sarawak by 2025.
“Through these initiatives, Sarawak is expected to achieve 99 percent electrification coverage by the end of 2021, a significant improvement over the State’s electrification rate in 2009, when overall coverage was 79 percent and rural coverage was only 56 percent,” he added.
Simultaneously, Sharbini emphasised the importance of various stakeholders working together to achieve net-zero carbon emission targets in plans to provide electricity to developing and remote regions in the Asia-Pacific region.
“This requires many countries in the region to gradually shift their energy landscape toward renewables, which will drive sustainable growth and prosperity while also enacting climate action.
“For Sarawak, the transition to renewable hydropower as the primary energy source in Sarawak’s generation mix has greatly bolstered the State’s socioeconomic growth.
“Through this, Sarawak can serve as the region’s battery to drive energy transition, with hydropower as its core,” he said.
Previously in 2019, SEB organised a thought-leadership campaign, the Sustainability and Renewable Energy Forum (SAREF), to lead regional energy transition discourse.
“This year, we are partnering with the UN Global Compact Network Malaysia and Brunei to hold SAREF 2.0 concurrently with the GO ESG ASEAN 2021 Summit to continue the discussion on our shared energy future.
“Collaboration is essential for us to turn our pledge and goals of net-zero carbon emissions into action,” he added.
