Sabah should opt for hydropower — ACEM
KOTA KINABALU: The Association of Consulting Engineers (ACEM) Sabah Branch recommends that the State Government should seriously consider adopting sustainable hydropower generation in major rivers in Sabah and ACEM members would be ready to assist in all ways possible.
ACEM Sabah Branch chairman Tan Kok Jyh made the recommendation after visiting the Freudenau Hydroelectric Power Plant located on the Danube river within the city of Vienna, Austria on September 9 together with other Sabah engineers.
He said that as engineers are people who use the forces of nature, technologies, and technical know-how for the benefit of mankind and the environments and there are many river systems in Sabah that can adopt this kind of green design concept and technologies, ACEM Sabah therefore recommended that the Government of Sabah should seriously consider adopting sustainable hydropower generation in major rivers in Sabah.
Tan said Freudenau hydroelectricity power plant is Europe’s largest urban hydropower plant which unites environmentally friendly electricity generation, navigation, flood mitigation, urban recreation and ecologically sustainable design.
A total of 24 engineers from Sabah took part in a 16-day technical and business study mission to Eastern Europe including Czech Republic, Slovenia and Croatia from September 3 to 18 led by the Honorary Consul of Czech Republic for Sabah, Vincent HK Tan.
The study mission to Eastern Europe was jointly organised by the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) Sabah Branch, the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACEM) Sabah Branch and Sabah Engineers Association (SEA) and supported by Sabah Builder Association (SEA), Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR) Sabah and Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Sabah.
Austria is well known in hydro power generation with 62% of its power generated from hydro. The energy mix is 62% hydro, 23% fossil fuel, and 15% from wind, biomass, geothermal and solar as reported by the organizing chairman of the mission Ir. Lo Chong Chiun
The Danube river has a rated flow rate of 3,000 cubic metre per second and the constructed power plant has a capacity of 172MW of hydropower electricity from 6 low-head turbines lining across the Danube river bed together with spillway gates, a ship lock, a semi natural bypass channel with an incorporated fish ladder, 13 km of promenade with foot and cycling path across the river to a recreation park.