INGENIEUR
INGENIEUR
( c) Net Energy Metering( NEM) The NEM is a programme regulated by the Energy Commission and administered by SEDA; the programme has been implemented since November 1, 2016. NEM promotes installation of solar photovoltaic( PV) on buildings and electricity generated by the PV system is used for selfconsumption. Any excess electricity can be sold to TNB at displaced costs which are set by the Energy Commission. At the moment, in Peninsular Malaysia, excess electricity is sold to TNB at 31 sen per kWh for low voltage connection and 23.8 sen per kWh at medium voltage connection. NEM is widely deployed and this policy instrument is an organic succession to the FiT scheme. NEM effectively allows building owners to be“ prosumers” by reducing electricity consumption from the grid and producing their own clean electricity.
Solar Photovoltaic( PV) Market
The solar PV market in Malaysia is still in early stages of widespread adoption. The underpinning market drivers for solar PV market in Malaysia are:
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The need to remove subsidy on fossil fuel in the electricity tariff to provide an equal playing field for solar PV( and any other forms of RE);
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The need to introduce time of use( ToU) in the electricity tariff to reward solar PV generation that coincides with peak electricity demand;
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The need to fully liberalise the electricity market and unbundle the single buyer model;
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The need for policy to promote distributed PV generation without imposing superficial caps;
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The need to introduce energy storage to manage intermittency of solar PV; and
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The need to refrain from more coal fired power plants which may be stranded assets if more solar PV is introduced to the electricity market, or crowd out solar PV electricity due to its inability to reduce baseload
Having a large manufacturing industry in solar PV does provide a backyard advantage to Malaysia. Under the FiT, bonus tariff for locally assembled
PV modules and inverters are given a bonus incentive to promote the use of local products. Besides having a significant PV manufacturing industry in Malaysia, the country lies along the sunbelt and this means the country receives a lot of solar irradiance. Hence, the market potential for solar PV in Malaysia is vast boosted by the ever decreasing cost of solar energy.
Falling Prices of RE
Worldwide, the prices for RE have dropped considerably and these technologies are going through a steep learning curve. Some RE( like hydro, wind and solar) have no marginal cost and are fast approaching, or have approached grid parity. However, there are institutionalised barriers that require addressing in order for RE to be an effective game changer.
Despite falling prices of fossil fuel, some forms of RE have already achieved grid / socket parity with conventional fuels( see Figure 1).
There are a few issues to address with regards to pricing of fuels:
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It is time we priced fossil fuel taking into account their environmental impact. In short, we need to internalise the cost of externalities to reflect the true cost of fossil fuel energy.
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If nuclear power is to be considered, this should include the cost of the full cycle, inclusive of permanent waste disposal and decommissioning of nuclear power plants.
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In considering fossil fuel / nuclear energy, the levelised cost of energy would increase due to the potential of higher cost of fuel and cost of GHG emissions.
Energy Balancing Market
The challenges for energy transition are not technologies nor adequacy of renewable resources, but the necessary paradigm shift of the electricity system. The future of energy shall be dominated by renewable energy especially energies with zero marginal costs, complemented by an energy balancing market. The archaic myth that renewable energy is expensive and
8 VOL 75 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2018