Environment minister: 630MW quota top-up among eight immediate measures to spur energy transition
KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad today said that the government will be increasing the quota for renewable energy power generation projects by a total of 630 megawatts (MW) as part of its eight immediate measures to speed up the country’s transition to renewable energy.
Speaking at the launch of the Malaysia Energy Transition Outlook report at M Resort and Hotel here, Nik Nazmi said that the quota increase will be implemented by the end of this year.
“One-hundred-and-eighty megawatts is for the development of small hydro, biogas and biomass projects under the Feed-in Tariff scheme.
“Two-hundred megawatts is for the Corporate Green Power Programme to enable more ESG (environmental, social, and governance) conscious businesses to procure green electricity,” he said as he explained how the 630MW quota increase would be split.
Another 200MW was set aside for the Net Energy Metering NOVA Programme (NEM NOVA) to encourage the utilisation of rooftops for renewable energy generation among commercial and industrial consumers, while the remaining 50MW was for the Net Energy Metering Rakyat (NEM Rakyat) Programme to encourage greater adoption of solar rooftops among domestic consumers.
To note, the quota for renewable energy is dependent on the capacity of the national power grid.
In March 2022, the total quota for renewable energy in Malaysia was reportedly 8,700MW.
The second measure announced by Nik Nazmi was the roll-out of a framework for third-party access to renewable energy by the fourth quarter of this year — allowing companies to directly source green electricity from renewable energy developers.
Nik Nazmi said the third measure was to allow year-round applications for participation under the Corporate Green Power Programme and enable participation from non-solar renewable energy developers.
Other measures included a public awareness programme on rooftop solar power generation for domestic consumers, as well as exploring the possibility of setting up an Energy Transition Fund.
Furthermore, the ministry will be undertaking a feasibility study on enhancing Malaysia’s power integration with neighbouring countries to establish Malaysia as a regional power distribution and trading hub.
It also committed to creating a mechanism to assess and enable the adoption of new clean energy technologies and cutting red tape around initiatives relating to sustainable energy and Malaysia’s energy transition.
These measures were announced as Malaysia picks up pace to achieve its goal of having 31 per cent of its national electricity capacity be from renewable energy sources by 2025.
According to an announcement by Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli on March 6, further plans will be revealed in a national Energy Transition Roadmap that is set to be released within the next three months.
