Tawau Green Energy announces several supply contracts
Sabah, Malaysia (source: flickr/ onemorebiteblog, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
3 Apr 2014
Updating on its project, Tawau Green Energy announces several supply contracts for the first geothermal power project for Malaysia. Companies that will be involved include, Power Engineers, Atlas Copco, GeothermEx, Jacobs SKM and Iceland Drilling.
In an announcement today, Tawau Green Energy announces a few updates on its Tawau geothermal power project. The project is the first geothermal power plant project in Malaysia located at at Apas Kiri, Tawau District in the east coast of the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo.
The existence of geothermal manifestations and a possible commercially viable geothermal resource have been recorded since 1962, but it was not until TGE began to take an in depth review of the available information and data of the resource in 2010 that this project got off the ground.
The company has now procured all requisite approvals for it to commence geothermal exploration and the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a 36MWe (gross) power plant at Apas Kiri. These include environmental and land permitting, a power purchase agreement with the state’s sole power utility, and qualification for a feed-in tariff.
Geothermal exploration commenced in 2012 and the field geological, geophysical and geochemical surveys were completed towards the end of 2013. GeothermEx Inc. in association with Power Engineers Inc. of the United States won a bidding process to undertake resource integration, resource assessment, well design and associated works.
Iceland Drilling Company won a bid to provide deep well drilling services as part of the resource assessment works. IDC’s 1300hp hydraulic rig, ODINN, will be deployed to Apas Kiri for this purpose. Drilling is targeted to commence in early May 2014. Jacobs SKM of New Zealand has been appointed as TGE’s drilling managers.
To enable these works to begin, TGE has completed the construction of almost 30km of access roads to the well sites and power plant site. This work has been partially funded by a grant from the Federal Government.
TGE recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Atlas Copco, a leading geothermal binary technology provider, to collaborate in the design and construction of the power plant. When completed in Q2 2016, the power plant will export 30MWe to the Sabah State Grid, and will complement the Grid’s generation capacity in Sabah’s east coast.
“Atlas Copco is looking forward to develop a strong collaboration and partnership with TGE to successfully construct the first geothermal power plant in Malaysia. Choosing and trusting Atlas Copco as an important partner to design and construct the first ORC-plant in Malaysia also showcases our gained expertise and know how when acting as EP or EPC in the geothermal business.”, said Lárus Eliasson, General Manager of the Geothermal Competence Center of Atlas Copco.
“We are excited to work with Tawau Green Energy on the first geothermal power project in Malaysia introducing to the market our Integrated project management concept. Currently on drilling assignment in the Philippines, the contract in Malaysia and preparing now to mobilise our second rig to the region strengthens our position in the growing geothermal market in Asia.” says Sturla Birkisson, Vice President Marketing for Iceland Drilling.
Source: Company release by email
