@ green | November-December , 2020

Managing well during the Covid-19 pandemic , SEDA is looking to the future with confidence

BY JOHNSON FERNANDEZ

a rude shock to many organisations by severely disrupting their operations , the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia ( SEDA ) is managing the challenge quite well .

It is because it had , before the pandemic , digitalised significant parts of its operations , including hosting critical applications in the cloud , having internal video conference facilities and fine-tuning its Business Continuity Plan ( BCP ).

“ Little did SEDA anticipate that such efforts expended in 2019 will become a lifeline during the Movement Control Order ( MCO ) period in March 2020 .

“ As a result , there were minimal disruptions to our office operations although we had to operate from home ,” SEDA CEO Dr Sanjayan Velautham told @ green .

During the MCO , SEDA reached out to the various RE sectors via virtual meetings to understand their pain points caused by the partial lockdown and how SEDA could assist them . It also engaged numerous focus group discussions with key stakeholders , such as the relevant ministries and government agencies .

It even conducted two webinars during the MCO and Conditional Movement Control Order ( CMCO ) period . Training related to renewable energy , energy efficiency and low carbon programme also went virtual during this time .

Sanjayan said that despite the gloom and doom brought by the pandemic , there was a positive side . According to a recent journal by the Nature Climate Change ( May 2020 ), the daily greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in April 2020 were comparable to the 2006 level . It marked a 17 per cent

decrease in emissions compared to 2019 .

“ The more pertinent question we should ask from this costly pandemic outbreak is what have we learned that we could apply within the energy sector ?

“ Understanding this is crucial as most economies are still strongly coupled with energy consumption .”

A more environmentally sustainable future

In May 2020 , the International Energy Agency ( IEA ) released a Renewable Market Update report . Not surprising , Covid-19 may result in a 13 per cent drop in new renewable capacity for 2020 .

“ However , the good news is that despite this drop , the IEA acknowledged that renewables have so far shown impressive resilience and may achieve full recovery to the same level as 2019 in as early as 2021 .

This recovery , Sanjayan said , could be catalysed by the government ’ s allocation of resources which creates a deliberate paradigm shift towards a greener economy .

“ The Covid-19 pandemic represents a timely opportunity to reset the priority of government policies , especially energy policies to accelerate energy transition before the window of opportunity to address the 1.5 ° C global average temperature increase closes .

“ This is in the recent publication of the Energy Transition Index ( ETI ) 2020 by the World Economic Forum ,” he said , adding that it emphasised that the “ rapidly unfolding repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic across the energy system illustrated the need for resilience and not just in physical infrastructure .

SEDA Malaysia is a statutory body formed under the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Act 2011 . Amongst its key roles is to advise the minister and relevant government entities on matters relating to sustainable energy ( SE )

It has been a challenging year for Ir Dr Sanjayan Velautham . Just a year after he took over as SEDA CEO in January 2019 , the Covid-19 hit Malaysia and the world in early 2020 .

But thanks to foresight in digitising its operations , SEDA is managing well during the pandemic . Sanjayan ’ s more than 30 years ’ experience in the industry , including research institutes , has also prepared him well to handle challenges such as the pandemic .

A professional engineer ( P . Eng .) with a doctoral degree in engineering , he is also an Advisory Board Member of the Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre ( APERC ), Japan . Despite his busy schedule , he manages to have engagements with several countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond , working with decision-makers in government , academia , industry and civil society .

He had also served as Project Manager for the United Nations Development Programme ’ s BioGen Project and has authored several publications on energy .

With the year coming to a close , Sanjayan spoke to

@ green on SEDA ’ s challenges , reducing Malaysia ’ s dependency on petroleum products , accelerating renewable energy and making energy transition an integral part of the broader post-Covid-19 recovery .

What is the outlook for renewables in Malaysia ? As at the end of 2018 , renewables in Malaysia represented 22.5 per cent of the national installed capacity mix . The large hydropower in Sarawak contributed much of this . However , efforts of the authority have resulted in increasing shares of other forms of renewables such as solar PV , bioenergy and small hydro through the implementation of the Feed-in Tariff ( FiT ) scheme since the end of 2011 . This scheme was outlined in the National Renewable Energy Policy and Action Plan ( NREPAP ) which was approved by the Cabinet in April 2010 . Hence , the NREPAP underpins the establishment of the authority and its core functions which include advising the minister and government entities on matters concerning sustainable energy and implementing the FiT scheme .