(From left) Economy Minister Mohd Rafizi Ramli, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Natural Resources, Energy and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, and Tenaga Nasional Bhd chairman Datuk Abdul Razak Abdul Majid. (Photo by Sam Fong/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 29): Natural Resources, Energy and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has called for Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to serve the government with a plan for the development of the nation’s grid to cater for the ongoing energy transition.

In his welcome address on the second day of the Energy Transition Conference on Tuesday, Nik Nazmi said the "Grid Development Roadmap for Higher RE Integration" will serve as a technical guide in enhancing and fine-tuning the implementation of sustainable energy policies and initiatives.

“This should take into account the expansion of electric vehicles and data centres, cross-border power integration, and the greater deployment of RE (renewable energy) projects, including those announced under the NETR (National Energy Transition Roadmap),” he added.

Nik Nazmi said RM180 billion in investments in grid development, strengthening and modernisation up until 2050 will be needed to develop a robust and flexible grid to facilitate the energy transition.

He noted that TNB’s current grid system performance is already on a par with developed economies — with 0.18 system minutes (the performance indicator of interruptions) and a system average interruption duration index (the average outage duration for each consumer served) of 45.06 minutes.

“To ensure we remain a cut above, [there will be] further upgrade to the grid system in facilitating the intended energy transition,” he added.

Previously, TNB announced that it plans to deploy RM35 billion between 2025 and 2030 in Malaysia’s grid, specifically for energy transition-related investments. This is on top of the RM54 billion the government-linked company’s non-energy transition investment allocated for the grid over the same five-year period.

Nik Nazmi was joining Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Economy Minister Mohd Rafizi Ramli in unveiling Part 2 of the NETR to further outline the nation’s steps to achieve a successful and inclusive energy transition.

Malaysia has set targets of increasing its RE capacity mix to 70% by 2050, and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions earliest by 2050.

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