@Green July/August 2020 | Page 26

26 SOLAR @green | July-August, 2020 Power from the sun PV technology is very scalable Michael Schmela Hussam Sultan SEDA Malaysia has made a clarion call on Malaysians to capitalise on its Net Energy Metering (NEM) scheme and make the most of the country’s solar energy potential due to its strategic location in the equatorial zone. This call was made to hundreds of viewers at home during the fourth phase of the national Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed by the government as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. At its inaugural webinar entitled “Invest in the Sun: What Covid-19 has taught us” on Apr 28, 2020, SEDA Malaysia pooled experts to deliver talks on investment in solar PV for the rooftop in Malaysia and the relevance of such investment at the pandemic period. The speakers were Taiyang News Managing Director Michael Schmela; SEDA Malaysia Chief Strategic Officer Dr Wei-nee Chen; Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) Green Technology Senior Deputy Director Zulina Mohamed; Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association (MPIA) Secretariat Head Lionel Yap; TNBX Sdn Bhd Managing Director Ir. Nirinder Singh Johl; and CIMB Islamic Bank Commercial & Transaction Banking Regional Head Hussam Sultan. According to Sustainable Energy Malaysia, the webinar received overwhelming response with more than 500 attendees from the public and specifically the commercial sector, including international viewers. In his keynote address at the webinar, SEDA Malaysia’s CEO Ir. Dr Sanjayan Velautham said the Covid-19 pandemic had drastically altered mankind’s daily lives and exposed the vulnerability of world economies. “Attention is drawn towards economic recovery packages. Malaysia is no exception. The government rolled out a series of economic stimulus packages to help the various sectors. To this effect, the government at the end of February 2020 announced the economic stimulus package which consists of 1,400MW of solar PV to be awarded,” he said. “Of the 1,400MW, 1,000MW will be for the large-scale solar (LSS) projects and, importantly for rooftop installations, 300MW for the domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors while 100MW for government buildings.” Sanjayan said the Covid-19 crisis was already reshaping attitudes. The new realities for different policy approaches would require broader public briefings on the investment on low carbon systems. This would pay off significantly when compared to the cost accounting from the health and environmental damages. Schmela presented a talk on the status of the global solar PV market in times of Covid-19 where he shared, among others, developments in China with regards to solar PV production and the demand as well as its price trend. He noted the Covid-19 pandemic had not helped much in the pursuit of promoting solar PV as only a few countries had included solar PV development in their economic recovery packages. He lauded countries like Japan, Switzerland and Malaysia for including solar energy intervention measures in their respective packages. Schmela anticipated global projects and sales related to solar PV to be somewhat delayed due to the pandemic outbreak but expected the situation to return to normal as of 2021/22. This, however, hinged on the effectiveness of the economic stimulus packages. He said an oversupply situation was looming in the solar PV industry as the producers continued to ramp-up output while demand remained stagnant as a result of the pandemic. This would subsequently drive the solar PV prices down. Chen, in her presentation on the NEM programme, told the participants of the Webinar that the NEM programme was fast gaining acceptance in Malaysia. She said the NEM programme was instrumental in democratising the country’s energy generation system via the solar PV technology, hence giving the public a role in generating clean energy while lowering the carbon footprint. “PV technology is very scalable. It is perhaps the only renewable technology that truly democratises electricity and allows the public at large to take part in energy transition so that we can together flatten the climate curve,” she added. Digital platform to trade P2P allows consumers to purchase green electricity and contribute to sustainable environment Peer-TO-peer (P2P) energy trading is a concept that allows the buying and selling of energy between two or more grid-connected parties. It uses a digital platform to process the trading which derives from the energy transaction between the energy producers (prosumers) and the buyers (consumers). Furthermore, P2P energy trading allows the consumer to purchase green electricity and contribute to a sustainable environment. According to Sustainable Energy Malaysia, there are several P2P energy trading platforms available around the world to support business and community projects. Globally, several projects have been ongoing for the P2P energy trading. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has proposed P2P energy trading as a business model which involves an online marketplace where consumers and distributed energy suppliers transact electricity at the desired price. It will also allow the consumer to buy green energy directly from the prosumers using emergency technologies such as blockchain. Furthermore, P2P has been proven to reduce the energy price for the customers up to 30 per cent such as in Germany. Another Asian country which is running such a pilot project is Thailand. In Malaysia, under the study for Renewable Energy Transition Roadmap (RETR) the P2P energy trading has been identified as one of the initiatives to encourage the solar PV rooftop installation. According to Infinite Energy Australia, P2P energy trading provides several potential benefits as below: People without the rooftop can still buy renewable energy from the solar panels at a reasonable price from their neighbours. Reduction of electricity transportation costs since the energy are transported within the distribution system. Traceability of the renewable energy generation source. Furthermore, the use of blockchain technology can help maintain immutability of energy transaction. Malaysia has started a P2P energy trading pilot project since October 2019. The pilot project’s duration was for eight months, starting from November 2019 until June 2020. The pilot project was conducted by SEDA Malaysia under the sandbox regulatory approved by the Energy Commission. The purpose of the pilot run is to conduct a technical feasibility study for Malaysia to implement the P2P energy trading in the future. In tandem with the Malaysian Electricity Supply Industry (MESI 2.0), P2P energy trading provides customers a choice to buy the green electricity from the market using a digital technology provided by the energy trading platform. Under the P2P energy trading pilot run, the project was divided into two phases namely: • Alpha: Technical feasibility study without a commercial transaction. Simulation using actual participants meter data. • Beta: Pilot run with the commercial transaction between prosumers, consumers and utility company (TNB). To operate the P2P energy trading pilot run, below are the important components: i. Prosumers ii. Consumers iii. RMR Meter iv. Billing system v. P2P energy trading platform P2P energy trading allows buying and selling of energy between two or more grid-connected parties. Using the concept of arbitraging the existing regulated electricity tariff between the prosumers and consumers, participants are selected based on the criteria below: Prosumers • Existing NEM applicant with minimum 1000kWh excess energy to the grid each month • Existing TNB tariff below RM0.40 per kWh Consumers • Good historical bill payment