KOTA KINABALU – In the middle of a presentation to investors, the lights at developer KTI’s headquarters flickered off and on again as the back-up generator kicked in.
“Welcome to Sabah,” group executive director Wilson Loke said with a wry smile.
Such outages are so common in the eastern state, where residents suffer more power outages than anywhere else in Malaysia. Most major firms have a Plan B, usually private generators like KTI’s. Others have direct power supply agreements, such as the whopping 70 megawatt (MW) deal for South Korean copper foil maker SK Nexilis’ RM2.3 billion (S$702 million) plant in the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park.
But the common Sabahan endured an average of over nine hours without electricity in 2023 despite public outcry over power problems dating back to the 1980s.
This woeful state of infrastructure in Sabah – especially basic amenities such as electricity supply – has come into sharp focus ahead of a state election due by January. It cannot escape comparison with neighbouring Bornean state Sarawak, where mega projects in the power sector have sparked belief that it can even export renewable power as
“Asean green battery”
.
“The view that there is no improvement in infrastructural development is prompted by chronic blackouts, muddy roads, landslides, torrential floods and lack of clean water. The comparison with Sarawak only compounds the sheer disgust,” Singapore Institute of International Affairs senior fellow Oh Ei Sun, a veteran Sabah watcher, told The Straits Times.
Sabah has so far struggled to generate enough power for its own needs, with reserve margin at just 5 per cent above peak demand of about 1,100MW in 2024, compared with Peninsular Malaysia’s excess of nearly 40 per cent. This means a power plant going down in Sabah is more likely to result in outages.
Add to that ageing infrastructure, an overloaded transmission and distribution network that lacks redundancies – alternative routes for energy to travel when there is a transmission breakdown – and extended outages are just a falling tree away.
“If some branches or animals touch the cable, then you get a trip,” Tuaran MP Wilfred Madius Tangau, who had chaired the state’s power provider Sabah Electricity until August, told ST.
In more remote areas such as Ranau – nearly three hours away by car from Kota Kinabalu in the state’s densely forested interior – residents saw more than 14 hours of unscheduled interruptions as recently as 2024.
By comparison, West Malaysia’s System Average Interruption Duration Index (Saidi) – a measure of the disruptions an average customer faces annually – is less than an hour.
But since the role of regulator was devolved to the Energy Commission of Sabah (ECoS) from its federal counterpart in 2023, the situation has slowly but surely improved.
Its chief executive, Datuk Abdul Nasser Wahid, told ST in an interview that Saidi for the first half of the year has been reduced from 363 minutes in 2023 to 162 in 2025, with an ultimate target of under 100 minutes for the whole of 2030.
“We implemented interim stopgap measures – generators running on diesel or gas and battery systems, and extending deals with independent power producers,” Mr Nasser explained.
Still, the lack of a back-up plan means that disaster can strike at any moment.
Floods in mid-September that killed 13
also caused a landslide that brought down a transmission tower, plunging most of Sabah’s east coast into darkness, with some districts going without electricity for 20 hours a day during a four-day-long crisis that affected 230,000 consumers.
This also wreaked havoc with water supply as treatment plants powered down and hospitals were also forced to postpone surgical procedures.
Sabahans faced a water cut in September when a landslide cut electricity to treatment plants.
PHOTO: BERNAMA
The timing of the mass blackout will undoubtedly cast a pall over Chief Minister Hajiji Noor’s ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, as well as its allies, including Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan.
But they will be quick to point out that electricity woes had remained unsolved under the Umno-led Barisan Nasional’s long rule. Perhaps only Parti Warisan Sabah, whose president Shafie Apdal is seeking to reclaim the chief ministership, can dodge heavy criticism, having spent only two years in government from 2018 to 2020.
The long-term solutions have been known for decades – generate more power and complement the sole west-east line with a Southern Link and complete a full loop. This will mean excess electricity can be sent along the grid in the other direction if there is a fault.
The project is now estimated to cost double the RM800 million projected in 2012. Not an insignificant amount, but a drop in the ocean compared with sums such as RM75 billion for the East Coast Rail Link – Malaysia’s most expensive infrastructure project, running 665km across the peninsula. It is also meagre compared with the RM27 billion Pan Borneo Highway that stretches over 2,200km across the length of Sabah and Sarawak.
While RM1.6 billion is currently beyond the financial muscle of Sabah Electricity, Mr Nasser notes that it is equivalent to less than three years of federal government subsidies for the state’s electricity.
But it is a project that lacks a clear revenue stream. Consumers pay for energy so power plants can charge for the electricity generated, but transmission is costly.
Nonetheless, Mr Nasser believes “it will happen eventually once you have a power station in the area or a connection with Kalimantan” in Indonesia that will necessitate the new link.
Power demand is forecast to double to 2,400MW by 2035, but Sabah Electricity loses money on every unit sold as its 34.5 sen tariff recovers less than four-fifths of the 43.8 sen average cost. Federal subsidies of RM700 million annually cover the shortfall, but as long as unpopular tariff hikes are not introduced, the utility remains too cash-strapped to make major upgrades.
State Minister of Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Phoong Jin Zhe told ST that the government is in a Catch-22 situation.
While investments are crucial to boost the economy, this leads to increased power demand, especially from growth in manufacturing. Because of this, Sabah is more prone to blackouts, which then make the state less attractive to investors.
Nuclear energy has been a politically
sensitive topic
due to fears of radiation, but it has since entered the conversation.
To roll out nuclear plants and have them operational as soon as 2031, Malaysia has started the process of acquiring international certification.
“We are encouraging industry to be less energy intensive at the same time we are pushing hard to plant up. Eventually, when the technology is mature, we would have to go with nuclear,” said Mr Phoong.
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