Tenaga ... Dec10

 

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui said there would not be a tariff hike for now (Dec 2010). Chin said it would be up to the Economic Council chaired by the Prime Minister, to decide. Earlier, a news report that the Cabinet had agreed in agreed in principle to a revision of electricity tariff but the implementation date has not been decided yet.

Meanwhile Tenaga is confident that it could maintain its profitability for the financial year ending Aug 31 2010 barring higher coal prices continues to climb higher and breach US$110 a tonne.

The demand for electricity was able to mitigate against the increasing coal prices.

At the current coal price (mid Dec 2010), it can hopefully maintain its profitability for the rest of the financial year. However, it might have to seek a review of electricity tariff if the coal prices continue to climb.

Che Khalib said Tenaga would make an appeal for a tariff revision if it could not sustain the rising coal prices.

Its room to manoeuvre itself in the current (Dec 2010) high energy price, especially that of coal, is getting smaller, and it seems likely that it will ask the government to review the electricity tariff.

TNB is still able to absorb the increase in fuel prices but should they continue to rise, the power company's bottom line will definitely be hurt. TNB is planning to hold discussions with the government should the situation become unbearable.

Should there be no electricity tariff hike, TNB must go back to the government to justify its cost of operations.

At present, the price of coal in the global market hovers between US$100 and US$110 (RM314 and RM345) a tonne, well above its benchmark of US$85 (RM267).

Meanwhile Tenaga wants to develop a power plant in Yemen after signing a collaborative agreement with the latter’s National Trading Company (NATCO).

NATCO is the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hayel Saeed Anan (HSA) Group, and is Yemen’s largest trading and contracting company. It recently won a government tender to build a 90 megawatt power generation plant.
Yemen currently has a shortfall in electric generating capacity and it is estimated that only 40 percent of Yemenis have access to electricity from the national power grid.

TNB’s role in the project had yet to be determined but could include building the plant. The government was looking to build another generating plant at the Port of Aden for industrial use, although details about the plan had yet to be released.
Tenaga, together with NATCO, would be involved in other power generation, distribution and personnel training projects in Yemen.

Tenaga has been actively pursuing projects in the Middle East and is one of the contenders for Saudi Arabia’s US$1.8 billion Qurayyah power plant.