A SUM of RM2.5 billion has been granted by the federal government for supplying electricity under the Rural Electrification Scheme (RES) in Sarawak since 2010.

Through the allocation, 1,280 projects had been approved to enable some 69,000 households to enjoy power supply, Minister of Public Utilities Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan told the State Legislative Assembly yesterday.

“Up to now, a total of 1,204 projects have been completed which benefited about 58,000 households, while 76 other projects are being implemented,” he said in his winding-up speech yesterday.

And for next year, RM360 million had been set aside for various RES projects through the grid system, while RM200 million had been approved for alternative systems, he added.

The minister welcomed suggestions by Abdullah Saidol (BN-Semop) and Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa (BN-Engkilili) that the appointment of contractors for rural electrification projects be decentralised, saying the state government would pursue the matter with Putrajaya.

“Under the current arrangement, the contractors are appointed by the federal government. State government, through the Ministry of Public Utilities and SEB (Sarawak Energy Bhd) only assist in the coordination and monitoring of the implementation of the projects. He admitted that such arrangement had caused several problems in managing non-performing contractors.

On electricity supply, he said the state’s present committed demand was 3,299MW and the grid’s firm generation capacity was 3,544MW. He pointed out that several projects had been implemented this year to meet the increasing demand for power supply in tandem with Sarawak’s economic growth.

“We have connected 532,505 households out of the 586,000 households with electricity supply as of Nov 30 this year. We have also enhanced the grid security and further improved the reliability of power supply through the on-going 500kV Transmission Line backbone project scheduled for completion in 2016.”

He said the reduction of electricity tariffs for domestic, industrial and commercial consumers had benefitted many people throughout the state, pointing out that the tariffs were the lowest in Malaysia and amongst the lowest in Asean.

“The state will continue to harness her abundant indigenous natural resources in water, gas, coal and also small renewable sources such as biomass, solar or biogas for power generation to meet the increasing demand.