SABAH'S POWER RESERVE MARGIN TO INCREASE TO 20 PCT BY JULY - HAJIJI

KOTA KINABALU, April 16 (Bernama) -- Sabah’s power reserve margin, which currently stands at 12.4 per cent, is expected to increase to 20 per cent by July, the State Legislative Assembly was told today.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said various interim and fast-track mitigation measures to boost the generation reserve margin and meet additional electricity demand were approved by the Sabah Energy Council, which convened three times last year.

“Last March, we only had four power rationings compared to 13 in the same month last year, marking a 69 per cent drop. This month, there has just been one, compared to three in April last year, or a 67 per cent decrease.

“Most of the load shedding or supply rationing this year was due to a lack of generation following the recent disruption in Petronas’ gas supply,” he said when winding up the debate on the motion of thanks for the state government’s policy speech by the Yang Dipertua Negeri of Sabah, Tun Musa Aman, here.

Hajiji said there was also a sudden loss of electricity generation from the solar power plant in Tadao, Kudat, due to thick cloud conditions, in addition to disruptions at the Main Switching Substation in Segaliud this month.

“The swift action by the Grid System operator and Sabah Electricity managed to minimise the generation disruption to just one hour,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hajiji said Sabah had gazetted over 2.01 million hectares of forest as Totally Protected Areas (TPAs), representing 27.15 per cent of the state’s total area.

He said that the forest area eligible for carbon credit purposes was, in principle, subject to market valuation methodology and depended on the value-added elements of the carbon project to be developed.

“To allow forest-based carbon credit trading, it must comply with the valuation and verification processes recognised by carbon credit market standards,” he said.

The motion was later passed by a majority vote, after which Sabah State Assembly Speaker Datuk Seri Kadzim M Yahya adjourned the sitting.

--BERNAMA