Sabah and Sarawak are facing a shortage of power, Bakun dam will bring so much good. There's power overwhelming in Semenanjung, but that doesn't justify that Bakun power is redundant. With sufficient power available, it is no surprised that Sabah and Sarawak to grow more then they were expected.

And Bakun Dam plus an undersea cable to Semenanjung will make huge amount of renewable energy available, perhaps TNB is with a tie to purchase electric from IPP, we can/have to get rid of them someday anyhow, like for meeting Kyoto Protocol, environmental issues, or fuel cost issues.

It is common for aluminium smelters to located next to or within reach of a hydroelectric dam due to the massive power requirement.

And...

We are already wasting so much money in buying electricity from IPP just to zap it into thin air.

But just in case TNB able to get rid of IPP, or our demand has risen so much. Particularly what kind of more power per ringgit projects we can have?

More coal plants? That is like going backward, for the fact that coal is so polluting and furthermore, we need to import them and got tie to international price.
More natural gas plants? Our gas reserves are diminishing and we already need to import some from overseas.
Nuclear power? Obviously this won't be a solution in a few decades.

When we need to think about more power per ringgit, renewable energies(other then hydro) stand little change to win the bidding.