PERAK (Sept 24): About 100 residents of Kampung Sat, an Orang Asli village in Sungkai, now have a reliable source of electricity for home lighting and mobile charging after 10 portable battery energy storage systems (BESS) were deployed to households on Sept 3.

The deployment is part of #PowerToEmpower, a community initiative that aims to provide reliable electricity to underserved communities across Southeast Asia. The initiative is run by Singapore-based clean energy technology company GoRental Global Pte Ltd, and the units will support approximately 10 households in the village.

Kampung Sat's residents are from the Senai community, and the village is led by a Tok Batin, the traditional village head. The houses are mainly made of bamboo, and the community relies primarily on the river for its water supply as the village does not have a proper piped water system. Access to reliable electricity is a challenge, and conventional infrastructure is harder to reach.

"I think, most importantly, is to serve the community… Definitely, as you guys have seen, the place is decentralised and away [from the city]...there's no power for the people over here and they use liquefied petroleum gas to cook their meals," said Colin Peh, founder and managing director of GoRental Global on the sidelines of the event.

The portable units give residents a clean energy source for everyday needs, including charging phones for communication and education. 

A BESS stores surplus electricity from solar panels, wind turbines or the electrical grid, then dispatches power for daily use, during peak usage hours or in emergencies.

Peh said each unit takes about six to eight hours of solar energy to charge using a single 120-watt to 160-watt solar panel, or about four hours with two panels.

The initiative at Kampung Sat was developed with community partners Kenneth Toon and his wife Arn Toon, who connected GoRental Global with the village and helped it understand the community's needs for solar electricity.

According to the company, the deployment will provide around 43,800 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy and avoid approximately 120 tonnes of carbon emissions.

Asked where the initiative would go next, Peh pointed to communities still dependent on diesel generators.

"We do have a few areas such as Sarawak and fishing villages in Pontian, Johor. There are a lot of fishing villages that are using gensets. We aim to replace or reduce those generators, as current fuel prices are increasing and people going out to fish find that it's expensive to fish," he said.