KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 6): Following the opening up of the national grid for direct trading of electricity between renewable energy firms and corporate consumers within Malaysia, the government is looking into suggestions to open it up for green energy exports as well, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

Fadillah, who is also minister of energy transition and water transformation, said the implementation of the grid third party access “will be monitored from time to time to ensure its effectiveness”.

“As such, Petra (Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation) and Energy Commission will provide continuous improvements, including [on] the recommendations for the opening up [of the grid] for the purpose of sale or exports of renewable energy,” he said in his winding up speech in the Dewan Rakyat on Budget 2025.

“Priority will be towards fulfilling electricity demand including green energy in the country, and should Malaysia has excess green energy, it will be exported,” Fadillah said.

Malaysia is aiming to have 31% of its electricity generation capacity in the form of renewable energy by 2025, from around 25% or over 10.4GW at the end of last year. By 2035, it should reach 40% of Malaysia’s total generation capacity, according to available government policy documents.

The government opened up the national grid in September as a step towards liberalising the electricity market. The programme, dubbed CRESS, is partly to support rising demand for green energy particularly from data centres booming in the country, which are expected to have 7GW of electricity demand by 2030.

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