1. Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) plans to deploy an additional RM35 billion between 2025 to 2030 towards upgrading Malaysia’s power grid, to ensure the infrastructure does not become an obstacle in the nation’s energy transition (ET) endeavours.
2. This is on top of the national utility giant’s RM54 billion non-ET investment allocation for the grid over the same five-year period.
3. This means that TNB plans to invest a total of RM90 billion into Malaysia’s grid in the coming five-year period. This is nearly double the RM46 billion the group allocated for 2018-2024. which comprises RM40 billion for non-ET and RM6 billion for ET.
VIEWS FROM INDUSTRY PLAYERS
1. Malaysia should speed up the process of upgrading the country’s grid to handle more renewable energy (RE) in order to attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs) and discontinue being a net energy importer.
2. The sale of RE energy can be done via a government-owned entity, this entity can also resell to the single buyer in case the buying country decides to restrict the import when it has too much of RE in the grid and to prioritise the supply of energy from existing local conventional power plants.
3. RE is regarded as having higher value than the conventional energy resources and Malaysia should sell RE at a premium as it takes up land and other resources.
4. Recently, the government had agreed to lift the ban on renewable energy exports to enhance the country’s green economy policy. Lifting the ban would benefit local renewable energy companies through cross-border exports.
5. The government agreed to increase RE capacity by up to 70% by 2050 through the Renewable Energy Strategic Development proposal presented to the Cabinet on May 3.
6. On the lifting of the renewable energy export ban, Loo said it was a good move and would make Malaysia more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient. This will position Malaysia as one of the foremost countries in exporting RE in the region and lives up to the Asean spirit and open up a new market for Malaysian players.
7. The decision to allocate RM50mil by the end of the year for installing solar panels in various government buildings and facilities is lauded. Focus should be given to government schools, especially those insufficiently funded ones.
8. Installation of solar panels at schools will provide students with a good exposure to solar panel technology as well as the importance of adopting RE and reducing carbon emission to achieve net zero carbon.
9. It was high time to review the Energy Commission’s regulations and guidelines to support and smoothen these targets such as lifting of the limitations of maximum PV capacity allowed under Net Energy Metering (NEM) programmes.
10. NEM is an incentive under the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) that allows homeowners to instal a solar photovoltaic system to generate electricity for their home to offset their monthly electricity bills.
11. At present, only a maximum of one MW is allowed for commercial and industrial consumers and just 10KW for residential customers. According to Seda, the potential of rooftop solar in Malaysia is more than 48,000 MW.
12. Transmission and distribution network infrastructures need to be upgraded to handle and support the sharp increase in rooftop solar PV installation capacity for homes, commercial and industrial premises.
13. An increase for electrical vehicles and also the presence of huge data centres will result in high demand for solar charging stations and large-scale solar farms.
14. With these high demands for solar energy as well as improved and upgraded electricity transmission and distribution networks, it is possible to achieve 40% grid penetration by solar PV instead of 25% envisaged currently.
Source:
https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/680024
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/05/19/speed-up-grid-upgrade-to-handle-more-re-say-industry-players
