He said the battery systems, being mobile, can be charged and relocated. He said the state energy company, Sarawak Energy Bhd currently stores the batteries in 22 containers, making them deployable to rural areas where needed.

“If this proves successful, we can expand the initiative further. They can also be used at hydroelectric dam sites and serve as a hybrid energy solution for our power plants,” he told reporters after visiting Malaysia’s first utility-scale battery energy storage system at the Sejingkat power plant.

The 60-megawatt system, which was energised in December, was commissioned today. It provides essential grid services as well as management of peak electricity demand.

Sarawak Energy said its investment in the system also enables the testing of the ability of battery systems to integrate intermittent sources of renewable energy, such as solar power.

The Sejingkat power plant, the first coal-fired power station in Borneo and the second in Malaysia, was commissioned in 1998 and is being gradually phased out.