The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (KETSA) and the Energy Commission (EC) should facilitate the establishment of the Sultan Ibrahim Solar Park as announced by His Royal Highness recently. This can easily be done through the New Enhanced Dispatch Arrangement (NEDA+) platform (and not a lucrative lopsided fixed income power purchase agreement).
NEDA+ enables independent power producers, including solar power parks to sell energy to the grid at an auction price. This helps lower down the cost of electricity procurement whilst giving opportunity for expedited private investment into energy plants, especially renewable energy. The liberalisation of this platform, NEDA+, began during Pakatan Harapan’s tenure in Putrajaya.
The government also has started a pilot project to sell solar and other renewable energy to Singapore via our grid interconnect. There is great demand from Singapore for clean power due to their land scarcity and the increasing awareness of corporate responsibility to reduce carbon emissions. This is another source of income for the solar park investors and the country and KETSA and the EC should encourage and facilitate this growth.
A 450MW solar park will generate approximately 585Gwh of solar power a year. This will reduce power derived from coal and gas power plants, reducing the carbon emissions in this country by up to 60,000 tonnes a year. I welcome projects that will reduce carbon emissions in our fight against climate change.
It is a shame that the federal government is yet to respond to them. This is by far the biggest private investment in solar power for 2021. The estimated RM1.4 billion power plant, named the “Sultan Ibrahim Solar Park”, is touted to be the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia with a combined installed capacity of 450 megawatts.
It will also be the region’s largest solar energy storage system when fully commissioned by 2023. By allowing this to happen the government doesn’t have to worry about forking any amount of money for the spurring of the economy. This is because the government will not be putting in a cent of money into this project, yet there will be massive amounts of engineering works that will be commissioned and paid for by the investor. Not only will engineering consultants and contractors benefit, there will be a
spillover economic impact on other related sectors.
I hope that KETSA and EC will utilize NEDA+ to facilitate this solar park for the benefit of the country.