Energy panel shortlist by middle of this month

THE Energy Commission Malaysia will shortlist by middle of this month candidates from 47 companies, consortium and joint ventures, including 10 foreign firms, which have submitted bids under the competitive bidding process for new combined-cycle power plants.

Chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Fauzi Hasan said the commission sent the request for quotation (RFQ) to these prospective bidders yesterday.

"From the RFQ, we will be able to evaluate their proposals and hope to shortlist them for the projects by mid-February," he told reporters on the sidelines of Tenaga Nasional Bhd's (TNB) Chinese New Year gathering here yesterday.

Ahmad Fauzi was asked to provide an update on the commission's tender process to build new combined-cycle power plants nationwide.

The tender is for 4,500MW of new capacity for 2016 and 2017. About 3,500MW will be needed to replace retiring capacity, while the remaining 1,000MW is additional capacity for the future.

The new competitive bidding will replace the expiring agreement of the first-generation independent power producers or the power purchase agreement.

Interested bidders include Ranhill Power Sdn Bhd, Mudajaya Corp Bhd, Tenaga Nasional, Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd, Majulia Sdn Bhd, 1Malaysia Development Bhd, YTL Power International Bhd, Amcorp Power Sdn Bhd, Jimah Energy Ventures Sdn Bd, Petroliam Nasional Bhd, Sime Darby Energy Sdn Bhd, Genting Sanyen Power Sdn Bhd, Malakoff Corp Bhd, Samsung C&T Corp, EDF SA, Marubeni Corp, Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsui & Co Ltd, Itochu Corp, Daewoo International Corp and Korea Electric Power Corp.

Meanwhile, Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui said the ministry is satisfied with the performance of the service delivery levels of the electricity supply industry in six selected states in Peninsular Malaysia, namely Kedah, Perak, Penang, Kelantan, Selangor and Johor and Sabah.

"The levels of performance of the utility service providers are measured through the system sverage interruption duration index or SAIDI," he explained.

For last year, Chin said the SAIDI reduction goals were focused on the six selected states that achieved less than average performance in 2010.

"Overall, I am happy with the performance of Tenaga Nasional, especially for the six states which were put under the KPI. They have achieved below the target set under SAIDI, which actually means far better than what was expected," he said.

For instance, Chin said the target set in Kedah in 2011 was 110 minutes per customer per year (m/c/y) and TNB had achieved 87.18 m/c/y.

In the case of Sabah, he said the SAIDI level achieved in 2010 was 687 m/c/y, while the SAIDI set last year was 700 minutes.

"Today, I am pleased to announce that we have made remarkable improvements by reducing the SAIDI level of Sabah to 494.64 minutes in 2011.

"This is a remarkable improvement because just two years ago, Sabah had a SAIDI level of 2,867 minutes and I was given a tall order to reduce it to 700 minutes within a year.

"But with the support and cooperation of all parties involved, especially Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, the Energy Commission and funding from the Federal government, we managed to reduce the SAIDI level to just below 500 minutes," Chin said.

For this year's target, he said it will be a more challenging, and the authorities expect to face many more problems, especially in Sabah.

"A revised SAIDI target will be established for both Peninsular Malaysia as well as Sabah for the year 2012 and it will be announced later.

"In fact, we are actually ready to announce. The Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Razak) had gone through the draft of the SAIDI target for 2012.

"But in order to maintain this SAIDI level, the government and TNB have to be very careful in their planning," he said.

Aside from natural incidents, Chin said the government and utility service providers need to spend a substantial amount to maintain and upgrade the transmission grid to meet the rising demand for electricity.

For instance, he said demand for electricity rises about 3.4 per cent annually and TNB is spending some RM5 billion as capital expenditure yearly.

"That is a big amount if you look at a total generation capacity that we have. So, there is always a struggle to supply enough electricity, meaning we have to plant up, upgrade our grid and equipment.

"In order to maintain this sort of SAIDI, TNB and government have to be very careful in planning in terms of execution and delivery of electricity to consumers," Chin said.