TNB to invest RM20b annually over 28 years to support country’s net-zero plan
05 Dec 2022
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) plans to invest RM20 billion worth of capital expenditure annually over the next 28 years to support the country’s net-zero agenda.
Speaking at ENLIT Europe 2022 in Frankfurt, Germany, TNB president and chief executive officer Datuk Indera Baharin Din said TNB is keen to meet with other European electricity supply industry players to explore the opportunities for partnerships and investments as well as delivering energy transition solutions for sustainable business growth.
He said in a press statement the initiatives to fast-track TNB’s sustainability agenda are focused on embarking on responsible energy transition in the areas of transitioning power generation to cleaner sources, enhancing the Grid of the Future to enable more green solutions, and facilitating consumer participation in the energy transition, including through electric vehicle (EV) adoption.
Indera said Asean recognises the strong interconnection among European countries had led to the delivery of several values, including sharing of resources, while managing the variability of renewable energy (RE).
“TNB has been working with the regional Asean Power Grid to strengthen the interconnection to obtain the similar advantage,” he added.
He said that TNB is keen to explore opportunities for partnerships and investments with its EU counterparts to deploy EVs, embark on hydrogen and expand decentralised RE.
The three-day ENLIT Europe 2022 which ended on Dec 1 was a gathering of thought leaders, visionaries, top officials and experts in the energy industry. The summit brought together over 4,000 delegates of like-minded organisations and industry players worldwide, who were on the same energy transition journey, to collaborate, innovate and discuss the most pressing issues in the energy sector.
Indera pointed out that for developing nations, “the core of an ideal energy system remains in balancing the energy trilemma, where access to affordable energy and security of supply are key”.
He said Malaysians benefit from among the most competitive electricity tariffs in Southeast Asia and TNB’s System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) is 45 minutes, which is currently on a par with the best-developed countries in the world.
The challenge is the need to rapidly transition to a lower-carbon world while meeting the growing expectations of TNB’s shareholders and stakeholders, he added.
“The scale and speed of the energy transition is a question of economics. Thus, we believe that managing these challenges will require a gradual transition. Governments will be key in this transition by helping introduce innovative financing schemes and policies that ease the transition and reduce risks,” he said.
Source: The Edge Markets
