2014 FiT quota release announcement delayed

This is one conference I've really wanted to attend. Unfortunately the dates clashed with another pertinent event in Kuala Lumpur, the Asia Water 2014 Conference which is currently ongoing - 19th to 21st March 2014.


The Deputy Minister of KeTTHA and SEDA officials at the 2^nd International Sustainable Energy Summit 2014 in Petaling Jaya.


Earlier this month, SEDA Malaysia announced in its portal that the new quota for its Feed-in Tariff (FiT) for 2014 would be announced during the 2nd International Sustainable Energy Summit, held in Petaling Jaya Selangor few days ago.


Delayed to refine FiT proposal

The announcement of the 2014 quota for its FiT programme for renewable energy would now be expected to be in April, at the earliest. Energy, Green Technology and Water ministry said this is to make some administrative adjustments.

The Malaysian Reserve reported that  a government official said the release of quotas for 12kW and below may be made as early as April but for larger projects exceeding 12kW, these may now be included in the 2015 quota. One reason why quotas for larger projects may be delayed is the amount of time it will take for some amendments to the Renewable Energy (RE) Act 2011 to be gazetted.

New legislation is needed because the threshold defining larger commercial non-individual photovoltaic (PV) projects has been brought down from 72kW to 12kW. These larger projects would need to go through a power system connectivity check by Tenaga Nasional Bhd, that would take at least 6 weeks, which can only be started once the legislation is gazetted.

Solar PV installations under 12kW do not need to undergo the connectivity test.

Some of the amendments proposed for Renewable Energy Acts 2011 are:

• sections that involved the terms and operational requirements
• FiT approval and FiT rates
• recovery of money
• redefining large commercial solar PV projects to include those beyond 12kW
• regulating the solar PV service providers
• inclusion of geothermal sources as a new RE source in the FiT programme

The Green Mechanics' two cents:

Since gazetted in 2011, the Renewable Energy Act has been revised almost annually to accommodate changing needs of the industry, which is good as we are only at an early stage of the implementation of green technology projects.

With the delay in announcement, it is fair to request that this year's roll-out be spread or extended to 2015 to give individuals and non-individual commercial holders of FiT approval sufficient time to complete their projects.

Malaysia's first geothermal power plant ready by May 2016

Malaysia’s first geothermal power plant at Apas Kiri, Tawau is expected to deliver 30MW of electricity to the Sabah State Grid in May 2016.

The first news of this venture came to light in 2011 when Tawau Green Energy (TGE) inked a deal with SESB for sale of electricity generated from geothermal for a period of 21 years.

Back in 2011, TGE showed the site of the proposed geothermal power plant in Tawau. Photo: TGE 

The project hit a snag the next year upon claim by Tawau Municipal Councilors that they were not informed/aware of the potentially environment-impacting activities related to the plant setup.

Fast forward to 2014, latest news tells us that drilling operations are now expected to commence at the end of April this year. Also, TGE was reported to have signed a MoU with the University of Auckland on the development of the geothermal energy industry here.


Collaboration with foreign experts

Under the MoU, the two parties agreed to facilitate the provision of the university’s expertise in geothermal training and research. The University of Auckland is one of the leaders for applied research and training in geothermal energy.

The collaboration will pave the way for the setting up of Geothermal Resource Centre (GRC) in Tawau, which would benefit us, among others, by way of:-

• Capacity building for the Malaysian geothermal energy industry


• Providing specialised training in all aspects of geothermal energy including applied geosciences, steamfield design, power plant technology, power plant engineering and design, operations and maintenance, environmental compliance


• Providing a platform for local universities and institutions of higher learning to collaborate with foreign institutions


• Conducting seminars, short courses and other training programmes for Malaysian engineers and scientists keen to involve themselves in this new field of renewable energy


• Encouraging local and foreign universities to collaborate on joint-research activities on the Apas Kiri Geothermal field.

"(We hope that with the setting up of the GRC, Malaysia’s human capital and expertise in the geothermal energy field would be strengthened). This is especially so as we want to promote use of renewable energy and reduce our dependency on fossil fuel. Currently renewable energy accounts for 0.85% of our country’s energy mix and we hope to increase that to 5.5% in the nearest future.”
- Dr. Maximus Ongkili, Minister of Technology, Green Energy  and Water, Malaysia.

It was reported that TGE will engaged the services of Iceland Drilling Company, IDC, for the drilling operations of the proposed Apas Kiri project on a turnkey basis. IDC has good track record both in Iceland and New Zealand.

Delegation from Dr. Maximus' ministry visited New Zealand recently to look at the operations and maintenance of geothermal power plants there. Geothermal currently contribute about 15% of New Zealand’s total energy needs.


TheGreenMechanics: Let's look ahead and get similar arrangements for local universities to get into some sort of MoU with TGE. We could perhaps start with UMS. Afterall this is the only facility of such nature in Malaysia and it would be a waste if transfer of technology is not accelerated.


Source: The Borneo Post