He said he believed this could be an option for addressing power shortages in Sabah.
He was responding to plans by a private firm which intends to build a multi-billion ringgit plant using clean-fuel technology to generate and supply power in Tawau.
The company, Afmaco Energy Bhd, claims it can utilise clean-fuel technology to generate power and supply it, with lignite, also known as surface coal, as the raw material.
However, Ongkili said his ministry had yet to receive any formal report or application from the company.
“We are not fully informed yet. This has been thrown in the media but there is a proposal to import power from Kalimantan Utara… but this is outside of the boundary of Sabah,” he said.
“Any issue on coal-generated power, I think it is better if you ask the state government. They are the ones who turned down the previous 300Mw (coal-fired power plant), which caused disruption to energy planning in Sabah,” he said, referring to the scrapped plans to build the facility in Lahad Datu in 2011.
“But I can say as a Sabahan, I think if we were to build (power) capacity in the East Coast (of Sabah) and you want to consider coal, it must not be on Sabah land. It must be on Kalimantan land… that is my stand,” he said to reporters after launching the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) open day here yesterday.
Sabah Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Pang Nyuk Ming had also previously said his ministry had yet to receive an official application from the private energy firm.
He added that “all this is just talk now”.
Meanwhile, Ongkili said he would be happy if the state government upped its equity in SESB.
“If you ask me personally, I think I would like the state to increase their stake, on condition they can pay,” he said, adding that SESB is now worth RM8.5 billion.
“It’s outside my purview because I’m a regulator. These shareholders will have to sit down. But I think it’s possible. We’ve got feedback that some discussions are taking place, as I confirmed about a month ago, about the future equity. But nothing official has taken place.
“The state government can submit to the other shareholders that they want to have a bigger equity, and we can facilitate as the regulator because any change in the equity must be approved by the regulator,” Ongkili said.
Parti Warisan Sabah had previously urged the Sabah government to acquire 51% of the SESB shareholdings, making it the major shareholder in the utility company.
This was after Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Raymond Tan revealed that the state government had offered to buy an additional 10% stake in SESB, with its initial shares standing at about 20%.
Earlier in his speech, Ongkili said the government had allocated RM2.3 billion, under the 11th Malaysia Plan, for the upgrading of power infrastructure to improve distribution in Sabah.
He refuted claims from the opposition that the RM2.3 billion would be mostly used to pay independent power producers (IPPs).
“That is totally wrong – not a single sen goes to the IPPs. This is to cover capital expenditure, mainly to improve generation by SESB.
“Most of it goes to distribution. We’ve been changing wires from unbundled to bundled wires, installing new lines and construction of transformers (among others).
“They (the opposition) have been claiming that the money goes to them (IPPs), but they get zero. They only do generation. So I hope this information will clearly explain things. My advice to the opposition is get your facts right,” Ongkili said.
Future of SESB hinges on discussions between ministries, TNB