Government gathering feedback before finalising electricity grid's third party access charges

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has yet to finalise the charges for third-party access to Malaysia's electricity grid under the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS), said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

According to Fadillah, who is also the Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister, the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra) plans to hold an engagement session with stakeholders on Aug 22.

This session will include industry players, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to gather feedback before making a decision on the charges.

"The concept allows for the generation of electricity that can be sold directly to your own customers, but the use of existing transmission lines owned by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) will incur a small charge, akin to a toll.""The exact amount of this charge has not been decided until we receive feedback from all stakeholders," he said at a press conference after the launch of 6th International Sustainable Energy Summit (ISES) 2024 here, today.

The government will introduce CRESS in September this year to increase corporate entities' access to green electricity.

Through the concept of open grid access, third parties can supply (sell) or obtain (buy) electricity via the grid network system with a predetermined system access charge.

Fadillah said Petra will continue to expedite and enhance the implementation of an open grid mechanism, facilitating increased access to green electricity for businesses through third-party or corporate power purchase agreements.

Meanwhile, he said Petra will promote the development and deployment of non-solar renewable energy resources such as biogas, biomass, and mini-hydro to diversify the nation's power generation sources while ensuring energy system security and reliability.

"To reinforce this commitment, a Feed-in Tariff (FiT) quota of 190 megawatts (MW) for biogas, biomass, and mini-hydro development will be allocated through e-bidding."

"Concurrently, the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) Malaysia will be conducting a bioenergy cluster study in sourcing green electricity from non-solar resources which will be permitted under the newly introduced CRESS," he added.