KUCHING: Sarawak Energy Group Chief Executive Officer Sharbini Suhaili has been elected to the Board of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) in continued recognition of Sarawak Energy’s contribution to sustainable hydropower development at global level.
Based in London, the IHA is the world’s most extensive and active hydropower network and was created under the auspices of Unesco in 1995 as the voice of sustainable hydropower.
Its mission is to advance sustainable hydropower by building and sharing knowledge on its role in renewable energy systems, responsible freshwater management and climate change solutions.
Sarawak Energy has been a member since 2010.
Commenting on his election to the board, Sharbini said, “I am honoured to represent Sarawak Energy and Sarawak on the board of the IHA.
This enables us to continue to develop strong relationship and direct contact with major hydropower players across the globe and grow in our knowledge and practice of sustainable hydropower development.”
“Our participation in the IHA has accelerated our ability to manage issues and the process of developing hydropower bench-marked against global standards. We are able to develop our hydropower projects on a strong foundation of continued and shared learning from our active participation in IHA.”
Sarawak Energy is itself a major hydropower developer and specialist having embarked on its first project – the 108MW Batang Ai Hydroelectric Plant – which was fully commissioned in 1985, and subsequently developing the 944MW Murum HEP which was first commissioned in December 2014.
It is now moving on to its next hydropower project with the 1,285MW Baleh HEP.
It is also in the process of completing the acquisition of the 2, 400MW Bakun HEP.
Aside from general learning gained from being a member of the IHA, Sarawak Energy’s participation on the IHA Board is recognition of Sarawak Energy’s effort and strong commitment towards sustainable hydropower development, guided by the Sustainability Protocol and Global best standards in hydropower development.
Sarawak Energy in collaboration with IHA provides training to its personnel to carry out assessments before, during and after the implementation of a project in accordance with the IHA Sustainability Protocol.
Sarawak Energy has established the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) governing structure to manage and coordinate internal initiatives as well as the development of its Internal Assessment team to assess the organisation’s sustainability performance as a platform for continuous improvement.
The Internal Assessment team is a cross-functional team consist of engineers and executives from various department within Sarawak Energy and they have been trained by an Accredited Assessors from the IHA in conducting an internal sustainability assessment to any project at any development stages as and when required by the management.
