KOTA KINABALU: The integrated maintenance work at Sabah Oil & Gas Terminal (SOGT) Kimanis which was originally scheduled to begin from 1 August to 7 August 2025 has been rescheduled to 5 August to 11 August 2025.
Energy Commission of Sabah (ECoS) Chief Executive Officer Datuk Ir. Abdul Nasser Abdul Wahid said this rescheduling was decided in a joint meeting between ECoS, Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd and Grid System Operator yesterday.
He said this rescheduling is to provide room for the completion of repair works on damaged units belonging to Sabah Electricity and Independent Power Producers, reliability testing of the Independent Power Producers operations in Kimanis using diesel fuel, and also the completion of additional Battery Energy Storage System capacity of 40MW.
This rescheduling will be able to significantly reduce the impact of power supply rationing to consumers in Sabah should it be needed for the stability of the Sabah grid network.
“The integrated maintenance work at SOGT together with offshore assets is a mandatory requirement to renew the Certificate of Fitness (CF) by the Department of Occupational Safety & Health (DOSH) to ensure that the assets involved always operate meeting the stipulated safety standards,” said Abdul Nasser in a statement today.
“Throughout this maintenance work, gas supply will be shut off to two Independent Power Plants namely Kimanis Power Plant and SPR Energy which will operate using diesel fuel.
“In addition, gas pipeline connection work for a new generation project currently being built by Sabah Electricity in Kimanis with a capacity of 100MW will also be implemented which can only be done during this gas supply shutdown.”
He said with the completion of this project in the third quarter of 2025 together with other generation enhancement initiatives, it will be able to increase the Sabah Grid generation reserve margin from the current 17% to 30%.
As a record, the reserve margin in 2023 was less than 10%. This increase in reserve margin is very necessary to add resilience to the Sabah Grid in case of damage to several generation plants.
Abdul Nasser said apart from efforts to increase generation capacity (supply side), electricity users can also play a role from the load demand aspect (demand side).
The easiest method is to use electricity in an energy-efficient manner and electricity usage that can be done after peak hours, which is after 9pm.
