Feed-in Tariff quota for 2014 delayed

SUBANG: The Feed-in Tariff (FiT) quota that was scheduled to be announced by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) yesterday has been deferred to the second quarter of this year.

The announcement comes as a blow to the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry and investors in the country. “On the local front, I know the stakeholders are waiting eagerly for the announcement of the FiT quota release today (yesterday).

“Unfortunately, the announcement of the FiT quota has been deferred to another date to allow Seda to make some refinement to its proposal,” Deputy Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said at the opening of the Second International Sustainable Energy Summit (ISES) 2014 yesterday.

The FiT, the country’s new mechanism under the Renewable Policy and Action Plan, allows electricity produced from indigenous renewable energy resources to be sold to power utilities at a fixed premium price for a specific duration.

As at end-January this year, Seda received 3,498 feed-in approval applications and approved 2,760 of them, involving a total renewable energy (RE) capacity of 536.07 MW.

Of the approved applications, solar PV received the highest with 39% of the RE capacity (209.06MW), followed by biomass (31.06% or 166.49 MW), small hydro (24.44% or 130.99 MW) and biogas (5.51% or 29.53 MW).

Seda chairman Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai said the total RE capacity achieved for commercial operations as at end-January was 163.19MW. Solar PV provided 85.36 MW of the capacity, followed by biomass (50.4 MW), small hydro (15.7 MW) and biogas (11.73 MW).

Seda chief executive officer Datin Badriyah Abdul Malek said the authority submitted the proposal on the latest FiT quota to the ministry a week ago. It is now pending further instructions.

She said the FiT rates for all renewable resources (except for small hydropower) will decrease with time according to their respective annual degression rates. The degression occurs at the start of each new calendar year from 2013 onwards.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 19, 2014.