KOTA KINABALU, Nov 4 – Sabah Electricity chairman Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau has warned that Sabah may face a statewide blackout starting in January unless urgent financial support is provided by the federal government, the Borneo Post reported.
With only a couple of months to go, Tangau voiced his serious worries about the insufficient funds for Sabah’s power subsidy in the most recent national budget.
“I don’t think people understand how critical this problem is. The federal government cannot simply say they have no money now. This is not just about energy security, but by extension, national security as well,” he said in a statement on Monday.
Tangau, who is also Tuaran MP and Upko honorary president, added that the state’s power supply system is on the brink of collapse.
The electricity tariff in Sabah has remained at a subsidised rate of 34.52 sen per kWh since 2014, despite the rising costs of generating and purchasing power.
Sabah Electricity currently produces only 20 per cent of the state’s power, with the remaining 80 per cent sourced from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) at an average cost of 43 sen per kWh, a legacy that has been hounding Sabah Electricity for years.
This difference in cost, Tangau noted, has been recovered by way of tariff support subsidy and fuel subsidy from the federal government after spending in advance to ensure sustainable power supply despite running at 10 sen losses per unit of electricity.
However, this year, the difference in cost has grown bigger as Sabah Electricity had to spend more in purchasing more diesel to generate power as an immediate alternative to delays in the commissioning of a few generation plants to come on stream – particularly the 66MW Tenom Pangi hydro which was affected by a landslide and mudflow in October 2022.
