An aerial view of the 2,400 MW Bakun Dam in Sarawak. — Picture courtesy of Sarawak Energy Berhad

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 ― The Sarawak government will not sell electricity generated from Bakun Dam to peninsular Malaysia due to the prohibitive cost of undersea cables, Chief Minister Datuk Abang Johari Openg said.

Power generated from the Bakun project will be used within the state and may be sold to Indonesia’s Kalimantan, which neighbours Sarawak, The Borneo Post reported Abang Johari telling reporters in Kuching yesterday.

“The state government will not sell the electricity power to Peninsular Malaysia because laying undersea cable will be very costly and the other problem is leakage.

“As far as the energy [from Bakun] is concerned, I have decided that we want to consume it [the energy] for our own, and perhaps we just want to sell it to our neighbour, like what we are doing now ― selling it to Pontianak in West Kalimantan,” he was quoted saying.

The 2,400 MW Bakun Dam started operating in 2011 after taking almost 15 years to complete.

The project was built at a cost of more than RM1.7 billion.