As of 2019, the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Malaysia announced the launch of a pilot run of P2P project trading for eight months of electricity across TNB’s grid, in collaboration with Australia’s Power Ledger Pty Ltd and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Owners of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system can become producers of energy, where they can sell the excess energy back to electricity consumers. The buyer or seller of the electricity would just pay a fee to “TNB to use the company’s infrastructure to complete the electricity transmission”.

Using blockchain technology, this platform plays a role in the pilot run of P2P as part of the Renewable Energy Transition Roadmap (RETR) 2035, developed to explore and enact the action plan of MESTECC to achieve the renewable energy mix target of 20% by 2025. The pilot run consists of two phases, which are the Alpha and Beta runs. Alpha will run for two months, in which the objective is to test the technical operability on energy trading that will come at no financial transaction. After the Alpha run has ended, the Beta run will take place for six months, where a financial settlement between NEM prosumers and consumers through TNB’s electricity bills.

This action allows these owners to become producers of energy, coining this term as “Prosumer”. As electricity consumers can benefit from the excess energy from the NEM prosumers, approved by the Energy Commission of Malaysia, with their rooftop constraints, they can enjoy the NEM scheme. This pilot run of P2P is for Net Energy Metering (NEM) and electricity consumers. Consumers who do not have solar panels but are interested in purchasing renewable energy can do so through this project.

Designed to increase the scope of the solar PV rooftop market in Malaysia, this pilot run of P2P was to test the trading, as well as the security that comes with it, according to Dr. Sanjayan Velautham, CEO of SEDA Malaysia. As Malaysia will be one first few countries in the Asia-Pacific region to test it, along with Thailand, Australia and Singapore, it is with great hope that the nation will soon have the platform to test it. “The aim is to bring prices down and thus benefit consumers and people who do [not] have solar panels but want to have cheaper green energy”, Dr. Velautham points out.

Not only is Plus Solar an advocate of this pilot run, but we are also an official industry supporter of this initiative by SEDA Malaysia. Out of the five companies that are involved in the pilot run of P2P, two of them are from Plus Solar’s clientele. Additionally, we participated in the official signing ceremony of the pilot run of the P2P Energy Trading, alongside MESTECC and numerous local authorities.

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Information Source: SEDA Malaysia, EdgeProp