‘Power project to Singapore approved, commercial operation expected in 2031’

THE Sarawak government’s proposal to implement a power interconnection project with a capacity of up to 1,000MW via undersea cable to Singapore has been given the green light by the federal government, says Dato Sri Julaihi Narawi.

The Minister for Utility and Telecommunication Sarawak said the approval was made during the federal cabinet meeting on Feb 15, where the cable would cross Indonesia’s Muri-Midai corridor, spanning 720km.

“The current status of the project is at the technical research stage, including undersea cable survey works.

“This cable project will be underwritten by Singapore and is expected to operate commercially in 2031,” he said when windingup his ministerial speech yesterday.

Apart from that, he said the federal government had also approved an interconnection project with a capacity of not less than 1,000MW from Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia.

“This project is still at the preliminary study stage by Sarawak Energy and Tenaga Nasional Berhad,” he added.

On export of electricity to Sabah, Julaihi said the interconnection project to the neighbouring state would connect the new Lawas substation in Sarawak to the Mengalong substation in Sabah through a 275kv transmission line, spanning 34km.

The project is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2024.

“However, this depends on the completion of the transmission line connection from Miri to Lawas district under the Northern Grid Extension project,” he said.

Julaihi said the Northern Grid Extension project was supposed to have been completed this month but has been delayed due to wayleave issues in Long Latei, Long Meraan, Long Seridan, Long Kawa and Long Selulong.

“The transmission line connection to the Sarawak Grid through the Northern Grid Extension project from Miri to Lawas District will only be completed at the end of this year if the wayleave issues could be resolved,” he said.