KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (PETRA) said it is open to exploring the use of new technologies for electricity generation to achieve the target of net zero carbon emissions as early as 2050.
Deputy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said among the technologies being considered are battery energy storage systems (BESS), pump hydro storage, carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), as well as nuclear technology, including small modular reactors (SMR) and large scale conventional reactors.
"The Electricity Supply and Tariff Development and Implementation Committee meeting on Nov 21 has agreed to include BESS and pump hydro storage as part of the electricity generation sources in Peninsular Malaysia," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
At the same time, he said the ministry continues to intensify the implementation of renewable energy (RE) programmes, including the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) programme, Net Energy Metering (NEM), Self-Consumption (SELCO), Corporate Green Power Programme (CGPP) and Clean Renewable Energy Supply (CRES), to reach the RE installed capacity target of 70 per cent.
Commenting on the imbalance cost pass-through (ICPT), Akmal Nasrullah said the government always monitors changes in fuel prices for electricity generation through the mechanism every six months.
“Currently the increase in fuel prices has caused a surcharge to be imposed on all electricity users in Peninsular Malaysia throughout this year, but the government subsidises the domestic users in a targeted manner where users below 600 kilowatts per hour still receive rebates,” he said. "Users of over 1,500 kilowatts per hour have to pay a surcharge on their respective electricity tariffs."
Regarding the use of electricity for data centres, Akmal Nasrullah said the projected electricity supply requirement for data centres is 12.9 gigawatts in 2030 and is expected to increase to 20.9 gigawatts by 2040.
He said that the projection was made based on data from Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), where up to Sept 30, 2024 a total of 101 applications from data centres with an energy requirement of 19,916 megawatts had been received by TNB. Of these, 17 data centre projects with an electricity supply requirement of 1,694 megawatts have already been completed.
-- BERNAMA
