KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional Bhd is tipped to be behind the force that may disrupt the country’s energy sector and break the traditional trend of power business.
It is learnt that the national utility company is advocating a transition move from a traditional marketplace where power systems are commonly supplied by large fossil-fuel generation plants.
Singapore-based Electrify chief executive officer Martin Lim said TNB was looking to allow consumers, who have passively been paying for electricity, to sell excess energy from their solar panels to anyone else across a city, facilitated by peer-to-peer energy trading platform.
This is in line with the market liberalisation in Malaysia, with the government pushing for with its 10-year masterplan called Malaysia Electricity Supply Industry 2.0.
“As the government targets for sustainable and green energy as well as promotes a more liberalised energy market, the industry in Malaysia is about to experience a technology breakthrough with TNB behind it,” Lim told the New Straits Times.
Electrify has been in talks with TNB to bring its peer-to-peer trading technology, called Synergy which capitalises on solar energy, into Malaysia.
“We have also been talking with TNB about conducting a pilot test on peer-to-peer energy trading platform. It has been supporting us.
“If TNB owns the platform that facilitates the trading of solar energy, it would make a transaction fee. And it does not have to generate the energy, so there is no cost here,” Lim said, adding that announcement on its collaboration with TNB was expected soon.
Following a successful trial in February this year, Synergy was also scheduled for a larger scale commercial trial in Singapore by the year-end, Lim said.
“About a year and a half ago, we started doing a research on peer-to-peer energy trading platform. We realised that the power grids that we are seeing are evolving and changing very drastically.
“With easy access to hardwares (solar panel systems), the barrier to entry even in Malaysia has become so low that even aircond contractors can install solar panels for households. It is that simple,” he said.
Over the next couple of years, Lim said the industry in Malaysia was expected to see more people installing solar panels on their rooftops as they want independence from the main grid and better energy security.
“For example in Australia, some people have moved away from the main grids due to high prices and tariffs. Globally, all power grids are moving into that direction. Even in Singapore, we see a lot of demands for solar panels.”
Before Synergy, Electrify has created Electrify.SG, Singapore’s first retail electricity marketplace built to help residential and commercial customers select the most suitable energy plans for their needs.
Leveraging Electrify’s intelligent price comparison technology, the cloud-based platform has transacted more than 60GWh of electricity.
In the last two years, it had helped some 500 commercial and industrial companies in Singapore save a combined S$1.5M.