EC clarifies Project 3B award to 1MDB

PETALING JAYA: The Energy Commission (EC) has said that the 1MDB-Mitsui consortium won the Project 3B bidding exercise to build a 2,000MW coal-fired power plant “fair and square” based on its “well-proven” technology.

It also concluded after a detailed study that the bid submitted by the YTL-SIPP Consortium did not fully comply with the technical specifications for Project 3B, which required the power plant to be designed based on proven technology that has been in commercial operation elsewhere.

The regulator said it would have been a non-issue had the YTL-SIPP Consortium selected a different steam generator model that had already been commercially used in other power plants to satisfy the requirements of Project 3B.

The unprecedented move by the EC to explain in detail the award came after one of the most closely-watched and contested bidding exercises for a power plant project continued to draw criticism from various parties.

The EC had previously issued a media statement to declare that the 1MDB-Mitsui Consortium had won the project based on the “criteria of full compliance with all the bid requirements as stipulated in the Request For Proposal document and the lowest levelised tariff offered.”

The regulator in a statement issued yesterday said that the 1MDB-Mitsui Consortium had complied with all the requirements for the project, including cost and technical specifications.

It said the levelised tariff of 25.33 sen per kilowatt hour (kWh) in 1MDB-Mitsui’s bid was “very competitive,” as it was just 1.34 sen per kWh lower than the next ranked bidder and 0.21 sen per kWh lower than the offer by YTL-SIPP.

“1MDB-Mitsui proposed the lowest project cost per megawatt among the four bidders at RM5.406mil per MW compared with YTL-SIPP’s offer of RM5.438mil,’’ it added.