KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — The introduction of the Net Energy Metering (NEM) scheme which is now entering its sixth year has succeeded in encouraging the use of renewable energy in all premises — residential, commercial and industrial.

NEM which was started in 2016 continued to be implemented this year with the introduction of NEM 3.0 with a capacity of 800 megawatts (MW) which showed a take-up rate of more than 40 per cent involving three categories namely NEM Rakyat, NEM Gomen and NEM Nova.

Energy Commission chief executive officer Abdul Razib Dawood said the capacity allocated through NEM 3.0 was 600 MW for NEM Nova and 100 MW each for NEM Rakyat and NEM Gomen.

He said the NEM intake rate is now very encouraging and it still has many quotas that can be taken up by customers on a "first come first served” basis.

"The latest take-up rates for domestic users — we have received customers for the 25 per cent quota and the remaining 75 per cent, for NEM Gomen for government buildings and government agencies of 18 per cent.

"While for the NEM Nova, 50 per cent from 600 MW has been subscribed. This programme is on first come first serve basis and will end in 2023,” he said when he was a guest on the Awani Agenda programme entitled Smart Energy Consumers, broadcast by Astro Awani recently.

Abdul Razib said that through NEM, consumers can install solar panels on their roofs and generate energy from photovoltaic (PV) solar for their own use and the rest can be exported to the grid under the supervision of Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to be credited into their monthly bills.

For NEM Nova, he said the target customers were commercial and industrial customers.

"Nova is Net Offset Virtual Aggregation. Virtual means we allow the offset of more than one premises in one account and the customer can generate a maximum of one or five megawatts (depending on the category) and can be used for offset. That is called aggregation among buildings due to the constraints of the roof size of the premises.

"So, we allow more than one premises to share renewable energy generation in several premises under one name or account. We need to remember that not only do we have to rely on access export units to TNB and as long as the factory or premises use self-generated electricity, it may be cheaper than purchasing from utilities.

"If we look at the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE), it is cheaper than what is bought from the grid and that is the savings generated for each NEM programme,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Razib said the Energy Commission had also launched the Green Electricity Tariff (GET) initiative in December last year aimed at reducing the carbon footprint in daily electricity consumption.

Among the benefits of GET are that consumers will be supplied with electricity from renewable energy (RE) sources such as from solar plants and hydropower plants; in addition, consumers will be given a Malaysian Renewable Energy Certificate (MREC) registered and recognised internationally.

"(For the MREC certificate) we charge an additional premium of 3.70 sen/kWh, although the premium is charged but GET customers who subscribe from Jan 1 to Dec 31 are exempted from the Imbalance Cost Pass-Through (ICPT) surcharge for one year,” he said.

He said the MREC certificate could be used by multinational companies (MNCs) that had a commitment to move towards ‘cleaner energy’ or ‘renewable energy’ while further strengthening their commitment to customers.

Since its launch on Dec 1 last year, 11 per cent of GET has been subscribed by as many as 308 users with most of them being commercial users, he said.

"We understand the level of public awareness on ‘climate change’, greenhouse gas (GHG) impact and we are also open to domestic customers subscribing to GET,” he said.

Abdul Razib said during the launch of NEM 1.0 and NEM 2.0, there were issues arising regarding the high start-up cost or capital expenditure (capex) and some parties could not afford to issue a high capital of RM20,000 or RM40,000.

"We have a special scheme which is ‘solar leasing’. It is like hire purchase, pay monthly in fixed instalments and after the lease expires, the photovoltaic solar system will be handed over to the consumer.

"For industry, we have a solar power purchase agreement, this is for large companies that need a large amount of solar energy,” he said.

The cost is in terms of energy purchases, and energy purchases may be cheaper than direct purchases from utilities. Solar power purchase agreements can reduce energy costs for commercial and industrial companies, he said.

The Energy Commission encourages programmes or initiatives such as NEM and GET because they can provide energy savings and efficiency to consumers. — Bernama