Five Bidders for Latest CCGT Plants

 

Malaysia’s latest competitive bidding exercise for combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants — the second in two years — saw five submissions at its close on July 1. [This article is based on The Edge Malaysia report (13 July 2026)] 

The Energy Commission requested for proposals with the aim of seeing new plants start operations between 2029 and 2031 as part of a repowering exercise as old plants are retired and electricity demand continues to grow strongly, driven by rising electrification and the influx of data centre projects. 

Notable players include a consortium involving YTL Power International Bhd with 750mw planned in Pulau Indah, Klang and a joint venture (JV) between Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS) and Edra Power Holdings Sdn Bhd (700mw). 

It is understood that utility giant Tenaga Nasional Bhd has also submitted a bid for a 700mw gas plant project in Connaught Bridge, Klang. The location was home to one of the oldest power plants in the country with an 800mw-capacity plant, which has since been decommissioned. The location currently houses a smaller, 375mw power plant that will operate until 2037. 

According to a source, Genting Bhd, through its power unit, has also submitted a 1,400mw proposal in Gebeng, Pahang. 

This latest bidding round, dubbed NEWGEN26, comes on the heels of an earlier bidding exercise in 2025 (NEWGEN25) that saw a Tenaga JV with Aurora Power Generation Sdn Bhd being the sole winner of new project awards with 1,400mw capacity in Terengganu under a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA). 

Under the 2025 exercise, the Energy Commission also awarded a PPA extension to three companies for their existing plants, namely Tenaga (1,262mw), Malakoff Corp Bhd (2,082mw) and Edra Power (1,375mw) to end-2029 and early 2030. PETRONAS, meanwhile, secured a 150mw additional capacity for its power plant in Pengerang, Johor. 

Peninsular Malaysia could see as much as 7,848mw of new gas power plant capacity between 2029 and 2031. In the same period, as much as 6,930mw worth of coal and gas-fired power plant capacity could retire. The bulk of the plant retirement would come from coal, comprising the nearly 1,475mw Sultan Aziz Power Station in Kapar, which is 60:40-owned by Tenaga and Malakoff (retiring in July 2029); the 2,070mw Janamanjung plant in Perak, owned by Tenaga (August 2030); and the 2,100mw Tanjung Bin power plant that is 90%-owned by Malakoff (September 2031). 

The idea is to phase out coal and replace it with gas-fired plants as baseload and reduce emissions in line with the government’s commitment to international practices. However, the influx of gas-fired power plant developments globally — to meet rising electrification demand while managing emissions — has resulted in a market squeeze for gas turbines, in some cases, requiring down payment of up to one-third of the turbine’s price. 

It is understood that YTL Power is among the few players that have secured turbines for new bids. Malakoff, which is said to be close to securing two 1,400mw power plants, previously announced it had secured four turbines from Mitsubishi Power Ltd. Tenaga, which has the NEWGEN25 1,400mw tender win in Terengganu and another 1,400mw project in the state, said a month ago that it had signed an agreement for six gas turbines, also from Mitsubishi Power, with up to 4,200mw capacity. 

However, the lead time remains tight for new projects. According to Wood Mackenzie, gas turbine manufacturing backlogs have stretched power plant lead times to as long as five years, compared to 3½ years previously. 

Attention has centred on data centres (DCs), which currently account for 7% of electricity demand in Peninsular Malaysia. This is expected to rise to 31% by 2035 on a power grid that also needs to cater to growing demand from other commercial and residential users. 

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has said Malaysia is restricting new DC projects that are not linked to artificial intelligence to manage water and electricity consumption. As a medium-term measure, the government has conducted two tenders for new gas-fired power plants — last year and this year — to add to generation capacity. 

However, actual DC consumption today is at a low base: it represents just 54% of approved capacity, with the remaining 948mw expected to largely come online only by 2028. That alone is equivalent to about 3% of grid-connected installed generation capacity, excluding other projects approved but not commissioned yet.

 

 

Based on the latest peak grid demand of 21,583mw on June 8 and grid-connected installed generation capacity of 28,192mw in 2025, Peninsular Malaysia has a seemingly comfortable reserve margin of 23.4%. 

But a closer look shows available generation currently stands at just under 25,000mw, narrowing the margin to around 13%. The reduction is partly due to planned outages for maintenance works, including at the 2,242mw Edra Melaka Power Plant. It is the largest thermal power plant in the country. 

Peninsular Malaysia also saw heightened electricity imports of 300mw from Thailand, mainly between September and November 2025 and throughout June this year, Grid System Operator (GSO) data shows.

Renewable energy generation, mainly from solar and hydro, is intermittent in nature and accounts for about 12% of peak demand, according to a snapshot of grid demand. On July 9. large-scale solar (LSS) supplied around 1,500mw during the day, while hydro generation exceeded 1,100mw at night. Hydro also supplied between 300mw and 600mw at other times of the day. 

In terms of grid-connected installed generation capacity, LSS and hydro represent nearly 17% of the total. LSS totalled 2,237mw as at July 2025, compared with 2,526mw of hydro generation, according to Energy Commission and GSO data. 

Another 2,400mw of solar capacity sits at the distribution network level and is therefore not counted as part of grid demand. Meanwhile, oil- and diesel-fired plants continue to supply between 360mw and 450mw. 

In the short term, the government has allowed several gas power plants to operate beyond their original commissioning periods. Will new gas plants be ready to offset the next coal power plant to be decommissioned — totalling 1,474mw — in 2029? The question is no longer whether Malaysia has enough power today, but whether new generation can come online fast enough or it has to play catch-up. Will the phasing-out of coal, which is the base load now for power generation, make it even more challenging? 

Reference:

Second gas power plant RFP in two years said to have drawn five bids, Adam Aziz / The Edge Malaysia, 20 Jul 2026

Did British Colonialism Kill 100 million Indians?

 

Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel’s research finds that Britain’s exploitative policies were associated with approximately 100 million excess deaths during the 1881-1920 period. Recent years have seen a resurgence in nostalgia for the British empire. High-profile books such as Niall Ferguson’s Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, and Bruce Gilley’s The Last Imperialist, have claimed that British colonialism brought prosperity and development to India and other colonies. Two years ago, a YouGov poll found that 32 percent of people in Britain are actively proud of the nation’s colonial history. (British schools don’t teach their children about the colonial exploits of their ancestors)

 

Source: https://ms.wikipedia.org

This rosy picture of colonialism conflicts dramatically with the historical record. According to research by the economic historian Robert C Allen, extreme poverty in India increased under British rule, from 23 percent in 1810 to more than 50 percent in the mid-20th century. Real wages declined during the British colonial period, reaching a nadir in the 19th century, while famines became more frequent and more deadly. Far from benefitting the Indian people, colonialism was a human tragedy with few parallels in recorded history. 

Experts agree that the period from 1880 to 1920 – the height of Britain’s imperial power – was particularly devastating for India. Comprehensive population censuses carried out by the colonial regime beginning in the 1880s reveal that the death rate increased considerably during this period, from 37.2 deaths per 1,000 people in the 1880s to 44.2 in the 1910s. Life expectancy declined from 26.7 years to 21.9 years. Robust data on mortality rates in India only exists from the 1880s. 

How did British rule cause this tremendous loss of life? There were several mechanisms. For one, Britain effectively destroyed India’s manufacturing sector. Prior to colonisation, India was one of the largest industrial producers in the world, exporting high-quality textiles to all corners of the globe. The tawdry cloth produced in England simply could not compete. This began to change, however, when the British East India Company assumed control of Bengal in 1757. 

According to the historian Madhusree Mukerjee, the colonial regime practically eliminated Indian tariffs, allowing British goods to flood the domestic market, but created a system of exorbitant taxes and internal duties that prevented Indians from selling cloth within their own country, let alone exporting it. This unequal trade regime crushed Indian manufacturers and effectively de-industrialised the country. As the chairman of East India and China Association boasted to the English parliament in 1840: “This company has succeeded in converting India from a manufacturing country into a country exporting raw produce.” English manufacturers gained a tremendous advantage, while India was reduced to poverty and its people were made vulnerable to hunger and disease. 

To make matters worse, British colonisers established a system of legal plunder, known to contemporaries as the “drain of wealth.” Britain taxed the Indian population and then used the revenues to buy Indian products – indigo, grain, cotton, and opium – thus obtaining these goods for free. These goods were then either consumed within Britain or re-exported abroad, with the revenues pocketed by the British state and used to finance the industrial development of Britain and its settler colonies – the United States, Canada and Australia. 

This system drained India of goods worth $45 trillion of dollars in today’s money. The British were merciless in imposing the drain, forcing India to export food even when drought or floods threatened local food security. Historians have established that tens of millions of Indians died of starvation during several considerable policy-induced famines in the late 19th century, as their resources were syphoned off to Britain and its settler colonies. 

Colonial administrators were fully aware of the consequences of their policies. They watched as millions starved and yet they did not change course. They continued to knowingly deprive people of resources necessary for survival. The extraordinary mortality crisis of the late Victorian period was no accident. The historian Mike Davis argues that Britain’s imperial policies “were often the exact moral equivalents of bombs dropped from 18,000 feet.” 

History cannot be changed, and the crimes of the British empire cannot be erased. But reparations can help address the legacy of deprivation and inequity that colonialism produced. It is a critical step towards justice and healing. 

But Britain is in no position to do so. India prior to colonialism was having 22-23% of global GDP, like China. When the Brits left, India’s GDP was only 2% of global GDP. Today India is the 4th largest economy and will be the third largest in 2030. So much for the good of colonialism. The Brits were not the only ones who were exploitative or destructive – the French, Belgian, Dutch, German, Japanese, Mongolian, Arab, Ottoman and now the U.S. are all part of an evil scheme to steal, kill and destroy! 

Reference:

How British colonialism killed 100 million Indians in 40 years, Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel, Al Jazeera, 2 December 2022

Why Can’t We Do the Losada Quotient?

 

The Losada quotient (or Losada ratio) is a concept from positive psychology that measures the ratio of positive to negative interactions or emotions required for flourishing. It suggests that to counteract the weight of a negative interaction and foster a healthy relationship or high-performing team, you need about 3 positive interactions for every negative one (a 3:1 ratio).

 

Understanding and applying this principle can help you improve workplace dynamics, communication, and personal relationships. The concept was developed by psychologist Marcial Losada and championed by psychologist Barbara Fredrickson. Through observing corporate teams, they identified a critical tipping point. The "Flourishing" Tipping Point: A ratio of ≈ 2.9013: 1. Teams and individuals who experience at least three positive moments for every negative one tend to thrive, become more productive, and report higher well-being.

The Upper Limit: The formula also suggests that ratios exceeding ≈ 11.6:1 can signal a decline, as the environment may become unrealistically positive, stifling constructive feedback and growth.

 

Source: https://www.wikihow.com

 

To bring this concept into your daily life and workplace, you can utilize it for:

 

Feedback Delivery

For every piece of constructive criticism or negative feedback you give a team member, pair it with roughly three pieces of positive feedback or praise to keep them motivated.

 

Team Morale

Leaders can actively cultivate a supportive culture by consistently recognizing contributions, encouraging collaboration, and validating ideas.

 

Personal Relationships

A healthy marriage or friendship is often sustained by consistently sharing affirmative statements, affection, and gratitude to outweigh inevitable disagreements or frustrations.

 

While the Losada ratio became widely popular in self-help literature (like The Happiness Advantage) and management coaching, it is highly debated in the scientific community. In 2013, researchers Nicholas Brown and Alan Sokal, along with psychologist Harris Friedman, published a widely cited critique. They mathematically debunked Losada's original fluid-dynamics equations, concluding that the exact 2.9013 ratio and its applications were largely pseudoscience.

 

Today, psychologists generally agree that while there is intuitive value in ensuring that positive interactions outnumber negative ones, there is no mathematically exact "magic number" that guarantees human flourishing or team success. Having said that, we can only surmise people love compliments to complaints. So even if you must complain, could you start with a compliment and then say “but” ….

 

 

Reference:

AI Overview, 13 July 2026

Servant Leadership!

 

Leadership is often misunderstood. Most people think it’s about authority, control, and giving instructions.

But the reality is the best leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders. Servant leadership is a shift in mindset. It’s not about being at the top of the hierarchy, it’s about standing behind your team and enabling them to perform at their best.

In traditional leadership, power is used to control. In servant leadership, power is used to support.

-One demands results
-The other builds people who deliver results naturally.

A leader who serves listens more, reacts less, and focuses on long-term growth instead of short-term output.

-They don’t chase credit.
-They distribute it.
-They don’t create dependency.
-They build capability.

And that’s where the real difference shows:

-Teams become more confident
-People take ownership without being told
-Performance improves without constant pressure

Because when people feel valued, they don’t just work… they contribute.

-Do people feel safe sharing ideas with you?
-Are you focused more on control or development?
-If you step away, does your team stop… or continue growing?

At the end of the day, leadership is not about how powerful you are.

It’s about how powerful the people around you become.

 

 

Reference:

Post by Gaurav Rajwanhi on LinkedIn

Government Still Bears 1MDB Debts!

 

Malaysia will have to shoulder the remaining liabilities of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) as most of the assets of the defunct state company have been recovered. A government-guaranteed Islamic medium-term note, comprising RM5 billion principal and RM3.9 billion in interest, is still outstanding on the books, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF). This is after paying off RM42.5 billion in debts and liabilities of the company as at end-June 2026. Successful asset recoveries totalling RM31.3 billion have helped offset some of the payments, reported Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong recently. However, “it is unlikely that future recoveries of funds or assets will be sufficient to cover the remaining 1MDB obligation in full,” according to Liew. 

Malaysia has initiated a slew of legal actions at home and abroad to recover RM20.1 billion related to 1MDB. Global financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank AG and Standard Chartered plc have been sued, as well as specialised corporate management Amicorp, and law firm White & Case. 

Criminal and civil proceedings against individuals, including Jho Low and Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor — the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, have also been instituted in connection to the scandal. However, there is no certainty of success. 

Failure would mean the government will have to step in to pay RM20.1 billion for the remaining obligations. Who bears the burden? It is the people of Malaysia. We can’t be voting in the same party who created this mess and maybe others as well. Don’t we want a clean responsible government? Or we prefer kleptocrats to rule again? Soon, we will face GE16. Be wise! 

Reference: 

Govt still bears 1MDB debts, legal action failures would mean more liabilities — MOF, Izzul Ikran, theedgemalaysia.com, 10 July 2026

 

Malaysia’ s Data Centres – Boon or Bane?

 

A data centre may not look glamorous. To some it is just extracting the nation’s water and electricity to stream cat videos and train chatbots for foreign companies. That looks like a powerful image but to a large extent, not correct. (Even for a blog writer like myself) 

Between 2021 and mid-2025, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) approved 143 data centre projects worth RM144.4 billion. Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Oracle alone have committed around RM69 billion. Yet, they did not have to choose Malaysia. 

Industry frameworks such as NVIDIA's "five-layer cake" describe: energy, data centres, cloud, foundation models, and applications. In Malaysia, one group, YTL, has built assets across every layer, deliberately. "Artificial intelligence will become one of the defining technologies of this generation, much like electricity and the internet before it. Building sovereign AI is not about one model or one application. It is about developing the full stack of capabilities, from digital infrastructure and cloud to foundation models and real-world applications, that allows Malaysia to innovate, compete, and chart its own AI future," says Yeoh Keong Hann, Executive Director of YTL Power International Berhad.

 

Source: https://ytldatacenters.com

Energy is the foundation layer. Training and running AI models takes enormous, continuous power, and an interruption can set a training run back by days. A country that relies on external energy for its AI ambitions inherits that dependency before a single chip or model is even involved. YTL Power has spent more than three decades as an independent power producer, powering major industries, and AI is now the most demanding of them. 

Data centres are the physical facilities where that energy becomes usable compute. Where they sit determines whose laws apply to the hardware inside, and how quickly capacity can grow. YTL has built that scale at its data centre campus in Johor, which spans roughly 1,600 acres near Singapore and is scaling to 1,200MW of capacity within the same site. 

Cloud is the software layer that turns data centre hardware into compute that businesses and researchers can rent, without owning or managing the machines themselves. Most countries and businesses rent this layer from a small number of foreign hyperscalers, since building it takes capital and technical validation few companies achieve. YTL AI Cloud closes that gap for Malaysia. In May, YTL AI Cloud became among the first in Asia to reach NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud status, a designation NVIDIA reserves for providers meeting its highest technical bar for AI workloads. It is one of only fourteen cloud providers worldwide to achieve these standards. 

The foundation model is the underlying AI system supplying the intelligence. It interprets the user's request and generates a response. If built and governed by a foreign company, its behaviour and limitations are set by that company's priorities, usually a broad global audience, with local markets adapted in after the fact. ILMU, developed by YTL AI Labs, was built for Malaysia, with a deep understanding of Malaysian language, culture and context. ILMU aims to be world-class with a Malaysian advantage, ranking first in the world on the MalayMMLU benchmark, which tests academic and general knowledge across dozens of subjects in Bahasa Melayu, ahead of global models. 

Applications are where value is created for the end user, and where intelligence, scale, and security all have to come together. In Malaysia, that convergence already exists: the capability to build autonomous AI agents, the country's first AI-powered bank, and an AI-first telco putting AI directly into millions of pockets. 

Agents are systems built around a model that let it act rather than simply answer: filing a form, processing a document, completing a transaction, without a person driving every step. YTL AI Labs has already moved into this space with ILMU Claw, built on the open-source OpenClaw framework, letting developers and enterprises build and host autonomous AI agents on Malaysian infrastructure. 

Ryt Bank, Malaysia's first AI-powered digital bank, runs on Ryt AI, a multi-agent system built on ILMU that transfers money and pays bills from a typed request or a snapped photo of a bill. It has scaled to more than a million users in its first year, on infrastructure built in the country.

Yes began as Malaysia's first nationwide 4G and, later, 5G operator, and is now an AI-first telco, giving every subscriber complimentary access to ILMUchat Pro and bringing ILMUchat to more than three million users. Yes also has its own AI assistant, Sofea, built in directly into the MyYes app, enabling customers check their usage and pay bills seamlessly. 

The conversation is now shifting from adopting AI to building the capability behind it. The countries that succeed in AI will not simply be those that use the technology most. They will be the ones that are able to independently build the infrastructure, talent and technological capabilities to innovate continuously. And the Government has blocked any data centre that is “merely taking advantage of cheaper water facilities and lower energy prices” (PM Anwar Ibrahim). 

None of this shows up as mass employment. Critics are right that a finished data centre needs few staff. But a KPMG study in 2025 put the sector’s likely output at around RM139 billion a year by 2030, close to 4% of the economy, and roughly 30,900 jobs once the supply chain is counted. 

The opportunity now is for every Malaysian to take hold of this and make full use of it: to work together, participate, and collaborate, across industry, academia, and government, so that Malaysia becomes an AI nation that leads the future. 

References:

Malaysia’s data centre backlash is loud, popular and wrong, K. Kathirgugan, FMT, 2 July 2026 

Why Malaysia's AI Future Depends on Building Capability, theedgemalaysia.com,
16 July 2026

Can Harapan be Saved?

 

Some have blamed Bersama for PH’s loss in the Johor state election. They recycle cliches that the Kancil party had “split votes” and caused them to lose.  But Malaysiakini has proved this assertion wrong; Bersama received few votes and only affected Harapan in two marginal seats. The major factor for Harapan’s defeat was Perikatan Nasional’s votes going to Umno, with PAS asking supporters to choose Umno. (Andrew Sia in Malaysiakini (13 July) reported on 12 ways to save Pakatan Harapan (“PH” or “Harapan”). This blog article is an adaptation of it.)

 

Source: https://ms.wikipedia.org

In other words, the racial strategy of PAS and Umno worked, with MCA and MIC riding on this Malay wave. Even big parties like PKR and Amanah lost deposits in seven seats. 

Political analyst James Chin said many non-Malays were angry with DAP, so they just didn’t vote. It may be said that Chinese voters preferred self-defeating cynicism instead of doing something positive like giving a boost to Bersama for real reforms. 

Harapan has been slapped with a yellow card. They must improve in their last 15 months to avoid a red card in the next general election. 

Here are at least 7 ways Harapan can save itself. 

1) Do serious reforms

Even if PH lose the next election, at least they’ll go down as heroes. When BN or PN inevitably fail, Harapan will have some credibility to regain power. 

2) Lower medical insurance

Control private hospitals’ profits, or create a good, affordable Madani health insurance to win back middle-class voters. And fund the healthcare system and improve its services. 

3) Economy and Education 

There are several good stories regarding the economy but the B40 feel the cost of living has not been addressed. SMEs seem lost in a more digitalised world. And do provide more jobs for graduates and school leavers. The unemployment rate for age group 15-24 is over 10%! 

Education has been the bane. UEC, private education and national schools continue to cause distress. Sarawak is working-out an education plan of its own. And it does look better on paper. 

4) Redraw seats fairly

One urban vote should equal one rural vote. Stop electoral manipulation and gerrymandering.

Many suburban seats like Bangi, Gombak, and Selayang in Selangor have huge Malay-majority populations but can only choose one MP. Meanwhile, the same number of rural voters can choose six MPs! Don’t punish urban voters. This will benefit Harapan, so what are they waiting for? 

5) Fight corruption

Clean up the MACC, then make it answerable to Parliament, not the prime minister. Set up an Ombudsman system comprising respected retired judges with powers to probe anyone.

So, if a civil servant earning RM7,000 monthly has three big bungalows and five luxury cars, they can be quickly seized if they can’t explain how they paid for them. 

6) Political funding law

Use this to control the disease of “political donations” buying over leaders and policies. Umno also promised this in their 2022 manifesto, so there are no excuses.   

7) Najib remains in prison

Don’t entertain house arrest or early release of a kleptocrat. This is a disgrace to the judiciary and rule of law if he gets away with house arrest or a pardon. And please be serious in getting J. Low. 

Harapan has been spiralling down since the Sabah elections, and now Johor. But it’s still possible to pull the plane up from the nosedive if Harapan takes decisive emergency action. If not, you may not even hit the Hudson River like Sully did on US Airways Flight 1549! 

Reference:

COMMENT | 12 ways to save Harapan after Johor defeat, Andrew Sia, Malaysiakini, 13 July 2026