Malaysia cuts Singapore renewable power

Malaysia will allow only non-renewable energy exports to neighboring Singapore, while power sales to the island through self-developed transmission and interconnection facilities will not be allowed, its energy ministry said.

The ministry said in a statement on October 22 that the government decided to review the Guide for Cross-Border Electricity Sales issued by its Energy Commission to expand its purview over the two energy and power sources.

The statement said the government has also agreed that the wheeling charges for selling electricity to Singapore over a two-year trial period will be $0.0228 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

“The decision was made to boost the development of the local renewable energy [RE] industry as Malaysia aspires to reach its climate change aspiration.

“It will also allow the government to allocate additional solar quota to benefit Malaysian RE players,” it said.

A global fuel crunch has caused the prices of natural gas to skyrocket, which has, in turn, led to the exit of a number of electricity retailers in Singapore.

The current quarterly household tariff stands at 25.8 cents per kWh of electricity, the highest rate in almost two years since the first quarter of 2020.

The updated Guide for Cross-Border Electricity Sales is scheduled to be published on the Energy Commission’s website on October 25.

According to the statement, the decision also frees up Malaysia’s government to increase its solar capacity within its national grid system.

In accordance with that, the ministry also decided to release an additional 300MW of solar quota under the Net Energy Metering (NEM) Net Offset Virtual Aggregation (Nova) program, which allows businesses to install solar photovoltaic systems on their premises to harness solar energy for electricity use.

The additional quota can be applied through the Sustainable Energy Authority Development of Malaysia’s eNEM system starting from November 15.

“The release of the additional NEM Nova quota is expected to benefit more than 60 to 300 commercial and industrial customers and create new business opportunities for more than 100 local solar players,” the ministry said.

The statement stated that the move will also contribute to the country’s post-Covid-19 pandemic recovery by creating an estimated investment value of 1.2 billion ringgit ($290 million) and providing 3,600 job opportunities.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES