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Kota Kinabalu: When Sabah officially took charge of its own electricity and gas regulation under the present Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) Government in 2023 and 2024, it was a turning point few expected would happen so swiftly. 

But for Datuk Ir Abdul Nasser Abdul Wahid, Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Commission of Sabah (ECoS), the handover could not have come at a better time.

“It happened quite fast, but in a good way. We needed to move quickly because energy planning in Sabah has to be aligned with what we want it to be. 

“Even before we became the regulator, we had already developed the Sabah Energy Roadmap and Master Plan 2040 (Se-Ramp 2040),” he told Daily Express.

That plan, co-developed with Sabah ministries, departments, industry players and utilities, is today the guiding document for Sabah’s energy transformation. It maps out

Sabah’s short, medium and long-term priorities, balancing the urgent need to address power shortages with the longer-term vision of decarbonisation and energy security.

Sabah’s electricity supply, historically overseen by Federal authorities, has long been plagued by reliability issues, frequent outages and an over-reliance on ageing assets. 

The territory’s System Average Interruption Duration Index (Saidi), a measure of reliability, was above 700 minutes as recently as 2020, among the highest in Malaysia.

“Public knowledge shows that Sabah had a lot of house-keeping to do. Energy resilience, reliability of supply from the grid, all of these were legacy issues unsolved by past Sabah governments. 

“But we saw it as a blessing in disguise...it forced us to confront the problems head-on and create opportunities for change,” said Nasser.

His Deputy (Planning and Economic Regulation) Ir Chu Wai Quan said ECoS’ immediate priority was to build up Sabah’s generation reserve margin to an acceptable level of at least 25 per cent. 

“The first 18 months were very busy. We had to look for quick-fix solutions, rental diesel sets, a 100MW rental gas plant and extensions of Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd’s diesel and medium fuel oil (MFO) plants. 

“These were stop-gaps while permanent capacity was being prepared,” she said.

By the third quarter of 2025, with the commissioning of the Lahad Datu Battery Energy Storage System (Bess) – Southeast Asia’s largest at 100MW/400MWh – and an interim gas plant in Kimanis, Sabah expects its reserve margin to exceed 25pc.

“These fast-tracked projects are already in motion. They stabilise the system, buy us time and give us the confidence to implement the longer-term transformation,” said Nasser.

Today, Sabah’s energy mix is more than 80pc dependent on natural gas, with diesel and MFO making up most of the rest. Renewables – mainly small hydro and biomass – account for only a fraction.

“There’s nothing wrong with gas; it is still the cheapest source of power in Sabah thanks to special pricing by Petronas,” said Nasser. 

“But we cannot sustain this over-dependence. Gas reserves are finite, industries also need it and we have a responsibility to decarbonise.”

The target is bold: 50pc renewable energy (RE) by 2035, on the way to 80pc RE by 2050. 

“This is possible because Sabah is blessed with solar irradiance, significant hydro potential and emerging opportunities in biomass, geothermal, wind and frontier technologies like Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (Otec),” said Chu.

Already, 826MW of solar projects are targeted by 2030, while a Hydro Development Master Plan has identified more than 1,500MW of viable projects across cascading rivers, dams and pumped storage schemes. Two large hydro plants in Padas alone could add 400MW.