Why Sabah’s Mega Battery Matters for Clean Energy

Malaysia just switched on a 100MW/400MWh battery in Sabah—and with it, quietly changed the rules for how Southeast Asia can grow clean energy.

This single project, BESS Lahad Datu on the east coast of Borneo, is now the largest battery energy storage system (BESS) in Southeast Asia by energy capacity. More importantly, it shows how green technology, data, and grid intelligence can keep the lights on while diesel and coal step back.

For anyone tracking green technology, smart grids, or the future of clean power in Asia, this is a milestone with lessons you can actually use—whether you’re a utility planner, a data centre developer, or a sustainability lead trying to make sense of the next decade.

How a 100MW/400MWh Battery Changes Sabah’s Energy Future

BESS Lahad Datu is designed for one clear purpose: stabilise the grid and cut reliance on diesel while Sabah rapidly adds renewable energy.

Sabah’s grid isn’t like peninsular Malaysia’s. It’s weaker, more isolated, and more vulnerable to outages. At the same time, the state is rolling out a wave of clean power under its Sabah Energy Master Plan and Roadmap 2040 (SE-RAMP 2040), with around 1GW of new hydro, solar, and wind already approved.

Here’s what this battery actually does in practical terms:

• 100MW output – enough to respond quickly to grid disturbances or shortfalls.
• 400MWh storage – roughly 4 hours of full output, ideal for peak shaving and evening demand.
• Strategic location – placed on Sabah’s eastern coast, where power disruption risk has been highest.

The state’s goal is straightforward:

Improve grid stability, reduce diesel dependence, and enable much higher shares of solar and hydro without constant blackouts.

From a green technology perspective, this is a textbook example of using storage as infrastructure, not as a niche gadget. The battery isn’t an add-on; it’s now part of how Sabah makes electricity reliable.

Inside the Project: Fast Delivery, Big Ambitions

The Lahad Datu BESS was developed and delivered in just over a year, which is remarkably fast for a project of this scale.

• Capacity: 100MW / 400MWh
• Developer / EPC: MSR-Green Energy (MSR-GE)
• System Supplier: Sungrow (through its energy storage integration arm)
• Utility Offtaker: Sabah Electricity (state utility)
• Contract Value: ~RM645 million (about US$156.5 million)

Why this timeline matters

Most companies underestimate how quickly large-scale storage can be built when:

• The policy direction is clear (Sabah got direct decision-making power from the federal government at the start of 2024).
• The use case is obvious (reserve margin, outage reduction, renewable integration).
• There’s a structured roadmap (SE-RAMP 2040 sets out security, affordability, and sustainability as core pillars).

I’ve found that where these three ingredients are missing, storage projects drift for years. Where they’re present—as in Sabah and Singapore’s Jurong Island BESS—you get megawatt-scale systems online in a fraction of the expected time.

How it compares in the region

The Lahad Datu battery is now:

• Largest in Southeast Asia by energy (MWh): 400MWh
• But not the largest by power (MW): Sembcorp’s Jurong Island BESS in Singapore has 200MW (and has expanded from 285MWh to 326MWh).

This distinction matters. If you’re planning storage, the question isn’t just “how big?” but “big in what way?”

• High MW favours fast response, frequency control, and short peaks.
• High MWh favours sustained support during multi-hour peaks or renewable dips.

Sabah chose a configuration that fits a grid with rising solar and fragile infrastructure: several hours of solid support, not just a quick burst.

Why Batteries Are Now Core to Southeast Asia’s Green Grid

The energy story in Malaysia is about to get very intense. According to climate consultancy Ember, Malaysia’s power consumption could increase sevenfold between 2024 and 2030, with roughly 2GW of planned data centre capacity driving a big chunk of that demand.

You can’t meet that with fossil-only power and still hit climate targets—or remain competitive. The grid would be too carbon-heavy, too expensive, and too vulnerable to fuel volatility.

Batteries, paired with renewables and smarter operations, are becoming the balancing layer that makes this growth possible.

Key forces pushing large-scale batteries in Malaysia

1. Explosive demand from data centres
   Hyperscalers and AI workloads need:

   • Ultra-reliable power
   • Clear carbon trajectories
   • Transparent energy sourcing

   A grid with gigawatt-scale solar and multi-gigawatt-hour storage is far more attractive than a diesel-heavy one.

2. National BESS procurement (MyBeST)
   Through the energy commission, Suruhanjaya Tenaga, Malaysia is running MyBeST, a national programme expected to award four 100MW/400MWh BESS projects (1,600MWh total), aiming for commercial operation in 2026.

3. Cross-border green power hubs
   The Southern Johor Renewable Energy Corridor (SJREC), backed by the World Bank, plans 4GW of solar PV and 5.12GWh of batteries near the Singapore border. This isn’t just local supply; it’s part of a regional strategy to generate and store energy in one country and export clean electrons to another.

4. Dispatchable renewables on Borneo
   In Sarawak, a consortium led by Founder Energy is building Malaysia’s first dispatchable solar plant:

   • 310MWp of solar
   • Paired with a 620MWh battery

   That’s not intermittent solar anymore—that’s firm, schedulable renewable capacity.

The reality? Southeast Asia is shifting from “add a bit of solar where you can” to “build clean, controllable power platforms where solar, storage, and smart controls act like a power plant.”

Where AI Fits: From Big Batteries to Smart Grids

Since this post sits in our Green Technology series, let’s connect the dots: big batteries are only half the story. The other half is intelligence.

As storage scales up across Malaysia—Sabah’s BESS, Sarawak’s firm solar plant, MyBeST projects, SJREC corridors—you can’t run these assets with static rules and manual scheduling. You need:

• Forecasts of solar, wind, and demand down to 5–15 minute intervals
• Optimised charging and discharging to minimise cost and emissions
• Real-time decisions about whether to support the local grid, regional grid, or export markets

This is exactly where AI and advanced analytics step in.

Practical AI use cases for large-scale storage

1. Predictive dispatch
   Machine learning models can:

   • Predict next-day price curves where markets exist
   • Forecast net load (demand minus renewables)
   • Schedule storage so it charges during surplus and discharges during stress, automatically.

2. Asset health and safety
   BESS performance degrades over time. AI models tracking temperature, voltage, and cycling data can:

   • Flag cells and racks likely to fail
   • Recommend operating windows that extend battery life
   • Reduce safety incidents and unplanned outages.

3. Virtual power plants (VPPs)
   Singapore is already piloting VPPs that aggregate batteries and flexible loads. Malaysia is heading the same way. AI platforms coordinate hundreds or thousands of distributed assets so they behave like one power plant, bidding capacity, ramping output, and following grid signals.

4. Carbon-aware operations
   As corporates chase Science Based Targets, storage operators can use AI to optimise not just for cost, but for emissions intensity—charging when the grid is cleanest and discharging when it’s dirtiest.

Most companies get this wrong by treating batteries as stand-alone hardware projects. The better framing is this: a BESS is digital infrastructure wrapped around electrochemistry. The winners in this space are already pairing their batteries with strong data teams or AI partners.

What Businesses and Developers Should Be Doing Now

If you’re developing projects, planning data centres, or shaping energy strategy in Southeast Asia, Sabah’s BESS is more than a headline. It’s a signal.

Here’s how to respond strategically.

1. Assume storage will be mandatory, not optional

With programmes like MyBeST and projects like Lahad Datu and SJREC, regulators are clearly positioning storage as core grid infrastructure.

For:

• Solar and wind developers – expect growing requirements for co-located or contracted storage.
• Industrial users and data centres – factor in on-site or contracted storage for resilience and green credentials.

If you’re still modelling projects on a “solar-only” basis for 2030, you’re behind.

2. Design business cases around multiple revenue and value streams

A BESS rarely pays for itself from a single use case. The strongest projects stack value:

• Peak shaving and demand charge reduction
• Backup and outage mitigation
• Frequency response and ancillary services
• Curtailment reduction for renewables
• Capacity or firming payments

In a fast-growing market like Malaysia, there’s also option value: being ready for new market mechanisms (capacity markets, flexibility services) as regulations mature.

3. Build digital from day one

Don’t bolt AI and analytics on later. Bake them into your project design:

• Data architecture for every inverter, rack, and meter
• Clear telemetry standards aligned with utility and market requirements
• Cloud or edge analytics solutions ready to scale as your portfolio grows

There’s a better way to approach storage than “buy boxes, plug them in, hope for the best.” Treat every BESS as a long-lived digital asset that happens to store energy.

4. Align with long-term policy roadmaps

Sabah’s SE-RAMP 2040, Malaysia’s national energy strategy, and Singapore’s storage targets all point in the same direction: more renewables, more storage, more regional interconnection.

Projects that explicitly support these roadmaps—through location, service type, and technology choice—tend to move faster through approvals and attract more favourable financing.

What Sabah’s Battery Tells Us About the Next Decade

BESS Lahad Datu isn’t just a local success story. It’s a preview of how green technology, AI, and big infrastructure will interact across Southeast Asia:

• Large-scale batteries will sit at strategic grid nodes, backing up renewables and replacing diesel.
• AI systems will coordinate these assets into flexible, dispatchable clean power.
• Cross-border projects like SJREC will turn national grids into regional clean energy platforms.

For businesses, that means two things:

1. Clean, reliable power is going to be much more available than many people expect by 2030.
2. The companies that treat storage and smart energy as core strategy—not side projects—will be the ones attracting capital, customers, and talent.

If you’re planning your next facility, product, or investment in the region, now’s the moment to treat battery storage and intelligent energy management as standard parts of the blueprint, not future upgrades.

The grid is getting smarter, greener, and more flexible. The real question is whether your organisation’s energy strategy keeps up with that pace—or gets left relying on yesterday’s infrastructure.