KL may scale back dam project

KL may scale back dam project

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia may scale back plans to build Southeast
Asia's largest hydroelectric dam in Sarawak state on Borneo
island due to insufficient demand for energy, a weekly newspaper
said Sunday.

The Bakun scheme is designed to have eight turbines generating
300 megawatts each but it may be reduced to only four turbines,
effectively cutting capacity by half to only 1,200 megawatt, the
Edge weekly quoted sources as saying.

Dam operator Sarawak Hidro, which is wholly-owned by the
finance ministry, is weighing an original plan to build up
capacity gradually in phases as and when demand picks up, the
sources said.

"That is one of the considerations being looked into. The main
problem now is that Bakun is being built to generate a maximum of
2,400 megawatts but except for the aluminium smelter which is
willing to take 1,000 megawatts, there are no firm takers for the
remaining power," said a source.

The smelter refers to a US$2-billion project in Sarawak state
by GIIG Capital, which is controlled by tycoon Syed Mokhtar
Albukhary, but the fate of this project itself is in question
after its Dubai-based partner pulled out last month. -- AFP