PARTI Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) urged Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to explain why Malaysia was slow in installing the Smart Electricity Grid (SEG) despite being a pioneer in the field.
“TNB’s slow adoption of SEG, despite Malaysia being one of the pioneers of its pilot project over a decade ago, is very disappointing.
“For example, TNB started the installation of Smart Meter (AMI) in Melaka back in 2016, but is only expected to complete installing the 9.1 million smart metres in 2026.
“On the other hand, Saudi Arabia completed installation of nine million smart metres under one year,” its central committee member Sharan Raj told FocusM.
In April, PSM accused the Government of prioritising the interest of independent power producers (IPP) despite the prices of renewable energy (RE) dropping sharply over the years.
It came after Energy and Natural Resources (Ketsa) Minister Datuk Seri Shamsul Anuar Nasarah urged renewable energy (RE) industry players not to press the Government to set a high a target for RE, claiming it would burden consumers with higher tariff.
However, Sharan then argued that SEG would allow Malaysia to reduce standby powerplant, known as electricity reserve margin, from 51% (FY2021) to about 10%.
He added that the smart grid infrastructure matches electricity production with power demand, with millisecond precision addressing the intermittency of RE.
“Malaysia could decommission at least 10,000MW of fossil fuel IPPs to reduce the fixed standby fees to the IPP crony capitalists, which translates into lower electricity tariff,” he was reported saying then.
TNB lacks foresight
Four days ago, TNB wrote an opinion piece reiterating their commitment to support Malaysia’s RE sector, adding the establishment was doing its best to support the industry and eventually, reduce tariff.
On that note, Sharan said that TNB’s electricity grid cannot accept solar power input of more than 25% of peak weekend demand, which is about 4,000 megawatts (MW) without SEG.
He added that Malaysia’s solar penetration will touch the 25% limit by 2023.
“Therefore, the future of Malaysia’s RE industry and its jobs, particularly solar installers, looks gloomy beyond 2023,” Sharan stated.
Adding to the problem, he noted, was that TNB would only install Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in 2030, which is an important component for SEGs to operate.
At the current projection, Sharan opined that TNB would only be able to complete installing SEG between 2040 and 2050.
“But Malaysians needed SEG last year itself to decouple from fossil fuel, particularly imported dirty coal which is an environmental hazard.
“Globally, RE is becoming cheaper but Malaysians are stuck with IPPs because TNB lacks the vision to adopt SEG by 2020,” Sharan remarked. – June 19, 2021
