January-February , 2021 | @ green

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REGTech SABAH 2021

A mid-term review of the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan is being done to further improve energy efficiency in the country

BY KHIRTINI K KUMARAN

mid-term review of the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan ( NEEAP ).

Undersecretary of the Energy Efficiency Division from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources , Wong Tin Song said : Hopefully by mid this year , we can come out with the mid-term action plan to see what and how we can improve on the NEEAP .

He said the five critical initiatives under the NEEAP were The Promotion of 5-Star Rated Appliances ; Minimum Energy Performance Standards ( MEPS ); Energy Audits and Energy Management in Buildings and Industries ; Promotion of Cogeneration ; and Energy Efficient Building Design .

Wong was presenting a paper on ‘ National Energy Efficiency Initiatives in Malaysia ’ at the second Renewable Energy & GreenTech Sabah 2021 ( REgtech Sabah 2021 ) held virtually on Jan 18-12 , 2020 .

​The keynote address was delivered by the Guest-of- Honour , Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Industrial Development of Sabah Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam .

Moderated by Dr Wei-nee Chen , Hibiscus Petroleum ’ s Vice President for New Energy Ventures , the speakers for the first two presentations were Wong Tin Song and the Deputy Director of Electricity Licensing from the Energy Commission Malaysia , Zamali Zamin .

Malaysia ’ s commitment towards energy efficiency can be traced back to 1975 with the introduction of its first energy policy , the National Petroleum Policy , followed by National Energy Policy ( 1979 ), National Depletion Policy ( 1980 ), Four-fuel Policy ( 1981 ) and Five-fuel Policy ( 2001 ).

Wong noted that the National Energy Policy 1979 ( NEP 1979 ) was long overdue and that the government was drafting the next NEP to suit the current developments and environment better .

“ In 2010 , we had the National Renewable Energy ( RE ) Policy and the formation of the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia ( SEDA ).”

Subsequently , the NEEAP was introduced for 10 years , starting in 2016 .

Wong also shared some of the initiatives under the 11th Malaysian Plan , including the Energy Audit Conditional Grant ( EAcg ) for industry and commercial sector , and retrofitting government buildings and hospitals with energy and cost-saving LED lights and chillers .

Solar biggest contributor to RE

Zamali presented a paper on ‘ Renewable Energy Landscape within Regulated Environment In The Case of Peninsular Malaysia ’.

In Malaysia , renewable energy ( RE ) contributors are solar , biogas , biomass , hydro and geothermal . Large Scale Solar ( LSS ) is the main contributor of RE capacity in Malaysia , and the total connected capacity is 734.76MW .

“ Solar is the biggest contributor in RE in Malaysia ,” he said , adding that in Peninsular Malaysia , the baseload for electricity generation is heavily reliant on coal and gas .

Meanwhile , in Sabah and Sarawak , the electricity generation mix includes hydro , biomass , biogas and solar , and therefore is quite green compared to Peninsular Malaysia .

Nett Energy Metering ( NEM ) 3.0 and New Enhanced Dispatch Arrangement ( NEDA ) for solar were introduced to enhance Malaysia ’ s RE and solar penetration .

Zamani also shared on the licensing policy under the Electricity Supply Act 1990 ( Act 447 ).

Wong Tin Song

Wei-nee , in moderating the session , said the industry had always known that EE was truly the lower of the hanging fruits in the sustainable energy agenda .

“ In that regard , it is most appropriate that we should address EE first before RE ,” added Wei-nee .

Public and private generation licences available in Malaysia are for the feed-in tariff , LSS , NEM , Self-Consumption ( SElcO ), Solar Leasing , and Supply agreement RE ( SARE ).

The two-day REgtech Sabah 2021 online conference featured 17 presentations from industry players . Meanwhile , the online business matching platform was available from Dec 23-2020 to Jan 29 , 2021 .

REgtech Sabah is the first and only one of its kind in Sabah . It serves as a dedicated platform where the renewable and green technology industry in Malaysia and beyond come together to share information , discuss challenges , opportunities and ideas for advancing Sabah ’ s renewable energy and green technology sector through online or virtual .

The first REgtech was held in November 2017 in a physical setting . — @ green

The two-day REGTech Sabah 2021 online conference featured 17 presentations from industry players . Meanwhile , the online business matching platform was available from Dec 23-2020 to Jan 29 , 2021 .”