Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) does not need electricity generated from Bakun in Sarawak in the immediate future, president and chief executive officer Che Khalib Mohd Noh said today.

He said the commissioning of two new coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 2,000MW would be sufficient until 2016.

"The coal plants are supposed to be the replacement for Bakun anyway," he told Bernama after attending the launch of the 1Malaysia Training Programme by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in Putrajaya.

The Energy Commission has awarded the concession to develop the first block of the 1,000MW coal-fired power plant to TNB.

The focus now would be on a possible tender for the second block of an almost equal-capacity power plant.

Meanwhile, the 2,400MW hydroelectric dam in Bakun is expected to start commercial production from its first turbine in August, to be followed by subsequent turbines at an interval of three months.

The eight and last turbine is expected to be fully operational by 2013.

Che Khalib said it was too early to think about transmitting power from Bakun to Peninsular Malaysia.

- Bernama