Surplus renewable energy sold to Singapore
Posted 5 months ago by Admin in Environmental
The Renewable Energy (RE) supplied to Singapore starting this month is the country’s surplus green electricity supply that is currently unused.
Therefore, Deputy Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said the government is encouraging more companies in the country to switch to using green electricity.
“The RE that we currently generate is still in surplus and we are indeed encourage more companies that want to meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices to choose to use green energy,” he said during an oral question and answer session at Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (PN-Kubang Kerian) on concerns about the sale of RE to Singapore, and the increase in demand from domestic data centres, causing Malaysia to be unable to achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2050.
Akmal Nasrullah said the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra) is committed to increasing the mix of RE capacity in the country’s electricity supply from 28% currently to 31% by 2025, 40% by 2035, and 70% by 2050.
He said the gradual and planned increase in RE capacity was a preparatory step by Petra and the Energy Commission to meet the demand for green electricity required by data centres, in addition to being one of the conditions to encourage new high-value investments into the country.
“The existing RE programme will continue with improvements, in addition to introducing new RE programmes to increase the mix of RE in the country’s electricity supply,” he said.
In addition, Akmal Nasrullah said that to enable corporate companies to have easier access to green electricity supply directly from RE generators, the government has introduced the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS) programme.
The programme, he said, allows corporate companies, including data centres, to obtain green electricity supply directly from RE generators through the utility grid network.
He was responding to Tuan Ibrahim’s original question regarding the readiness of the country’s public and private energy-supply ecosystem in supplying green energy for data-centre operations.