Tuesday, October 14, 2014

1MDB Energy Receives Yet Another Bail Out From The Government

The Government is pulling all stops to bail out 1MDB Energy after multiple Initial
Public Offering postponements with lucrative directly negotiated power contracts at
the expense of higher electricity tariffs in the future.

The Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water has confirmed in his reply to me on
Thursday last week that the Government has awarded another power plant project via direct
negotiations to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). This 2,000MW gas-turbine power
plant sited in Melaka was rumoured to have been awarded in late August this year.

Earlier in April, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) had signed another power purchase pact with
1MDB on the construction of a solar power plant. 1MDB will design, construct, own, operate and
maintain a 50MW solar photovoltaic energy facility in Kedah and supply electrical power to TNB.
Before that 1MDB was also controversially awarded an RM11 billion 2,000MW coal-fired power
plant in February despite offering a higher power tariff in an “open tender” exercise.