NEWS & UPDATES

KUCHING

24 JUNE 2022

Sarawak Energy shared the key roles of digitalisation in supporting sustainability and Sarawak’s digital economy at the International Digital Economy Conference Sarawak 2022 (IDECS 2022) held this week.

This year’s conference themed, “Decoding Big Data for Environmental & Energy Sustainability” is aligned with Sarawak’s Post COVID-19 Development Strategy 2030 goals focusing on economic prosperity, social inclusivity, and environmental sustainability.

Sarawak Energy is a leading regional proponent for sustainability in the renewable energy sector with digitalisation a key enabler as it moved towards becoming a digital utility by 2025.

Senior Vice President for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Sim Ko Sin, shared its digitalisation journey and its linkages with sustainability as part of a panel session on “Digitalisation to Accelerate Sustainable Development for Sarawak”.

The panel session included Dr. Hazland Abang Hipni, Deputy Minister for Energy and Environmental Sustainability and Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani, Chairman of Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation Berhad (SDEC) and was moderated by Lisa Oakes, Founder and Director of Oake Media.

Sim highlighted that Sarawak is ahead of the curve in the energy transition and Sarawak Energy has an important role in mitigating climate change through a decarbonised power grid with digitalisation as an enabler.

“Our business is very much aligned to the “Net Zero Carbon” ambition. Development in sustainable hydropower enabled us to pursue opportunities in commercialisation of low-carbon solutions and the promotion of a low carbon economy,” she said.

“In pursuit of our ambition to become the best operator and the renewable energy powerhouse of the region, Sarawak Energy also developed business digitalisation blueprints and roadmaps for each of our core lines of business, including Digital Power Plant, Smart Grid, and Smart Retail,” she continued.

She disclosed how early digital investment had enabled Sarawak Energy to continue operations during the nationwide movement control order (MCO), by serving its customers through virtualised service and online platform and facilitate Sarawak Energy’s business resilience.

Sim highlighted that while Sarawak Energy is an asset-intensive company with its transformers, turbines, generators and other physical assets, the Group placed equal importance on data as a strategic asset.

“By harnessing our data value, we are able to visualise information related to Sarawak Energy’s key operation performance metrics and derive actionable insights to optimise our operations, which enabled our plants to greater reliability, agility, efficiency, and productivity,” she said.

"We are also working closely with like-minded agencies such as SMA, SDEC, through the Ministry of Utilities and Telecommunication (MUT) to drive Sarawak’s Digital Economy and Green Energy Agenda," she added.

Held in a hybrid setting, IDECS 2022 was launched by Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr.) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, Premier of Sarawak, who emphasised that the event serves as international event and cornerstone platform to share new ideas, develop strategies and address issues to move forward the sustainable Digital Economy.

The event saw participation of 2,500 physical attendees and more than 40,000 online viewers. IDECS 2022 also showcased expositions and exhibitions from various government, government-linked and private agencies.

Panel speakers for “Digitalisation to Accelerate Sustainable Development for Sarawak” session. Sim Ko Sin (left), Dr. Hazland Abang Hipni (middle) and Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani (right)

“Digitalisation to Accelerate Sustainable Development for Sarawak” panel session ongoing. Moderated by Lisa Oake, Founder and Director of Oake Media (first left), Dr. Hazland Abang Hipni (second left), Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi, (third left) and Sim Ko Sin (fourth left).

Sim speaking during the panel discussion