Posted on 28 Jun 2017
KKB Engineering Bhd has teamed up with a state-owned enterprise from China to seek opportunities to participate in Sarawak’s power plant projects.
Group executive director Kho Pok Tong said the partnership between KKB and State Nuclear Electric Power Planning Design & Research Institute Co Ltd (SNPDRI) was to jointly explore business ventures in the construction of power plants.
“We are exploring all types of power projects, including hydro-electric dams,” he told StarBiz recently.
Under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed recently by the parties, KKB’s responsiblity is to identify projects and opportunities in Sarawak’s energy-related field while SNPDRI’s role is to provide planning, consultancy, geo survey, engineering, EPC (engineering,procurement and construction) as well as operation support services in the fields of thermal power,renewable energy and powewr grid.
SNPDRI is wholly-owned by State Power Investment Corp, one of China’s top five power generators and integrated power group. According to KKB, SNPDRI has built coal-fired power plants in India, Laos and Thailand as well as power transmission lines in Pakistan, the Philippines and Ethiopia.
Kho said Sarawak had potential in harnessing its energy resources and generating power for its industrial development.
“We have met with senior officials of Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) and state ministry in charge of energy development to express our interest to participate in the state’s power plant projects,” he added.
SEB has a long-term plan to raise its power generation capacity to 7,000MW by 2025 to meet anticipated rising demand from industries in Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score) and for export.
SEB is currently exporting power to west Kalimantan, Indonesia, and has plans to export electricity to neighbouring Sabah and Brunei.
Load demand from Score customers is expected to reach 2,550MW by 2020 and could potentially increase to 3,700MW by 2025.Sarawak’s organic demand is projected to increase to 1,450MW by 2020 and 1,950MW by 2025.
The 944MW Murum dam is the first major dam built by SEB, which is in the process of completing the purchase of the 2,400MW Bakun dam from the Federal Government.
SEB’s 600MW coal-fired plant project in Balingian, Mukah is in advanced stage of construction and is expected to be operational next year. It also owns coal-fired plants in Sejingkat, Kuching and in Mukah.
In addition, SEB has embarked on another major hydro dam project in Baleh, Kapit division, which would have an installed capacity of 1,285MW when ready in 2024.
The state utility body has yet to award tender for the main dam construction.
Sarawak has also planned for several other hydro dam projects, mostly in the interiors of central and northen regions.
Kho hoped that the KKB-SNPDRI collaboration would identify and lead to them to pre-qualify and bid for SEB’s planned power projects.
He said KKB, which is Sarawak’s leading steel fabricator, was not new in the state energy sector as it had been involved in power plant projects including the Sejingkat and Mukah coal-fired power stations in the past three decades.
Via associate company Ocean-Might Sdn Bhd, KKB diversified into the oil and gas sector when it was awarded a licence in “offshore facilities construction in major onshore fabrication” by Petroliam Nasional Bhd in 2013.
OceanMight had completed and delivered another project – the engineering, construction and procurement of the Kinabalu redevelopment wellhead topside and jacket for Repsol.
