KOTA SAMARAHAN, Sept 7: The Centre for Renewable Energy (CREN) Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) won an award at the 37th Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, recently.
CREN Unimas received the award in the Renewable Energy – Off Grid Power category, for a project entitled Development of Micro Hydro Project for Kpg Assum in Padawan.
Unimas, in a statement, revealed that Kampung Assum is home to about 35 Bidayuh families with a population of about 450 people doing agricultural activities as their main source of income.
Initially, the village was not connected to the electricity grid, forcing it to rely on costly diesel-powered generators for power.
CREN Unimas, through a grant from the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change completed a design and build the project to provide the basic hydroelectric power supply of 10kW + 5kW systems in 2017.
The free electricity generated from the micro hydro system is used for agricultural food processing activities managed by the community as additional source of income, with part of the income to be used for the system maintenance in the future.
The micro hydro site at Kpg Assum is also used to conduct technical training related to micro hydro system for interested participants, which is handled by the villagers assisted by the university.
The Asean Energy Awards represent the benchmark of excellence and recognition for those working across the industry and shown that critical role played by participants to boost the development of the sector and helped the industry forward and the region towards a more sustainable future.
Assoc Prof Dr Azhaili Baharum, Assoc Prof Dr Wan Azlan Wan Zainal Abidin and Assoc Prof Dr Thelaha Masri and everyone at CREN Unimas were lauded for the achievement. — DayakDaily
