Renewable energy will see growth in solar segment in 2019

However, due to higher fuel and generation costs, additional surcharge of 1.35 sen/ kWh is imposed on domestic customers with monthly usage of above 300kWh from July to December 2018.

But, thankfully, the surcharge for 81.7 per cent of domestic customers is subsidised by the Kumpulan Wang Industri Elektrik ( KWIE) fund, totalling RM114 million.

However, with the KWIE fund now at RM600 million and only enough until next half-year, the government should come up with new measures, according to an analyst.

“No matter how efficient your market is or how well your infrastructure plan is, if the market is heavily dependent on fossil fuel which is influenced by the global fuel prices, the fluctuation of electricity prices is something that is beyond their control.” he told Bernama

To assist the current issues on electricity surcharge, he said the affected companies should shift to renewable energy ( RE) that would not just help stabilise electricity tariff but also reduce carbon emissions.

With companies such as TNB, Siemens Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Wah Seong Corporation Bhd, Visolar Group Bhd, Leader Solar Energy ( LSE) Sdn Bhd and KNM Renewable Energy Sdn Bhd, embarking or growing their RE segments during the year, Malaysia can now dream of achieving the 20 per cent RE efficiency target by between 2025 and 2030 from the current two per cent.

Based on the Energ y Commi s s ion’s stat i s t ic s, Malaysia’s electricity generation for 2016 was derived from gas (43.5 per cent), followed closely by coal (42.5 per cent), while hydro made up 13 per cent of the power generation mix.

Based on the notes from research firm Protege Associates, Malaysia has a renewable capacity of 7.3GW (gigawatt) in 2017, of which 82 per cent was contributed by hydropower.

In September, Siemens Malaysia, which is set to expand its business portfolio in RE, said that it would come up with solutions for the solar portfolio and be ready to jump on the bandwagon when the government announces its RE project.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Indranil Lahiri had said that the RE industry was seen to be picking up momentum in 2018.

“The last few months have seen decisions moving away from solar FiT ( Feed-in-tariff) – as grid parity approaches – towards concrete plans to make renewable solar energy attractive in all segments ranging from largescale towards residential.

“The prospects for 2019 look favourable, given the reducing costs for solar and storage technologies, incent ives to improve uptake and possibilities to ease funding.

“RE industry will see growth in solar segment in 2019 – thanks to large scale solar ( LSS3) tender,” he told Bernama.

Lahiri said a few factors would weigh in, to promote increased uptake of RE.

For one, a higher selling rate/ kWh for exporting renewable energy will encourage solar installations.

“This now forms part of the revised net energy metering ( NEM) concept, effective 2019, permitting export back to the grid on a one-to- one offset with energy imported.

“Besides that , al lowing third-party investors to put up solar installations without any upfront costs for the residential owners, through solar leasing mechanism, as being promoted through the Supply Agreement for Renewable Energy (SARE), will also help to increase renewable ramp-up,” he added.

He said the company along with the industry players would look forward to having the Energy Efficiency Act to be tabled in Parliament in mid-2019.

“We also believe that enabling smart grid applications will al low small consumers to become part of the system, for example, through rooftop solar or blockchain- enabled transactive energy platform (as implemented by Siemens in Brooklyn, the US), which could become a game changer for the industry and economy as whole,” he said.

Besides, the interest shown by Petronas to diversify into the renewable energy space, will also help drive the industry and contribute more to government revenue.

As for developments during the year, LSE has officially launched the commercial operation of its net 29MWac Solar Power Plant in Kedah in November and with the plant’s annual net energy output of up to 61 million kWh, it is sufficient to supply electricity to about 11,000 homes.

The LSE solar power project will eventually save the environment from approximately 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission annually that might otherwise be created from fossil fuel power generation.

On Nov 23, TNB commenced operations on the country’s largest Large- Scale Solar ( LSS) photovoltaic plant which is expected to generate 1,700 MW of RE by 2025.

This project, which came under the 11th Malaysia Plan, was secured by TNB Sepang Solar Sdn Bhd through competitive bidding process.

The LSS, which is expected to help the government hit its RE target, has the capacity of 50 MWac, utilises 230,000 solar panels and will help increase TNB’s RE capacity in the national grid to 72.3 MW.