Ingenieur Vol. 75 ingenieur July 2018-FA | Page 18

INGENIEUR
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RE technologies have now matured and can compete with
fossil fuel systems on their own, without any subsidies.
However, there are several issues which need to be
addressed to further increase the contribution of RE to the
power sector.
cost or avoided cost (the portion of the cost
which the utility will bear) has remained constant
since 2014. FiT was only supposed to kick-start
the RE Industry, and not become a permanent
feature. To cater for this, two new mechanisms
have been introduced, Large Scale Solar (LSS) by
bidding and Net Energy Metering (NEM), including
Self-Consumption (Selfco) , to cater for the huge
opportunities still available for solar PV.
Large Scale Solar by Bidding
The LSS has been entrusted to the Energy
Commission (EC) for implementation. The EC
has decided to implement this scheme for
both ground-mounted and rooftop installations
for capacities ranging from 1 MWac to 50
MWac (reduced to 30 MWac for the second
round of bidding). It has had a mixed success
where some smaller plants connected to the
distribution network have been commissioned
but no large plants (30 MWac and above) for
connection to the transmission network have
yet been commissioned. There have also been
no plants commissioned in Sabah due to the
utility’s reluctance to sign the Power Purchase
Agreement (PPA). Although the mechanism is
good, we cannot simply follow the example of
countries like India, China, and the Middle East,
where there are huge tracts of desert or other
unusable land. We have limited land and this
scheme should target smaller systems, say up
to a maximum of 10 MWac, for installation on
rooftops, reservoirs/lakes, and other dead space.
The connection to the Grid should only be at the
distribution network.
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Net Energy Metering
Under this scheme, which is also regulated by the
EC but implemented by Seda, consumers who
install PV systems on their roof first use it for their
own consumption and the balance is exported to
the utility. Although the name suggests otherwise,
the exported energy is not credited in terms of
kWh subtracted from the monthly consumption,
but credit is given at a lower rate, i.e. the prevailing
displaced cost. Consumers who wish to install PV
systems under NEM first have to get approval from
the utility before Seda can approve the system.
Self-Consumption
This is a sub-set of NEM for consumers who intend
to use all the energy generated from their own PV
systems. However, the installation is limited to
75% of the MD, and the EC still requires customers
to get approval from the utility although the system
is entirely for self-consumption, with safeguards
like Reverse Power Relays (RPR) in place.
ISSUES IN GENERATING AND
DISTRIBUTING POWER FROM
RENEWABLES
As mentioned earlier, FiT is a temporary
mechanism to kickstart the RE Industry; it was
never intended to be a permanent feature since
subsidy schemes are not sustainable over the
long term. RE technologies have now matured
and can compete with fossil fuel systems on
their own, without any subsidies. However, there
are several issues which need to be addressed