KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 14): The government has effectively firmed up the national grid system access charge (SAC) for third parties at 18 sen per kilowatt-hour (kWh), sources told The Edge, in an about-turn less than a month after announcing a cut in the rate to 14 sen/kWh.
The latest rate was revealed during a briefing led by the Energy Commission together with the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra), according to sources.
The SAC is imposed under the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS), a programme that allows renewable energy (RE) developers to sell electricity directly to industrial customers.
Under the scheme, customers pay RE developers for electricity, a portion of which goes to grid owner Tenaga Nasional Bhd (KL:TENAGA) in the form of SAC for access to the national grid.
Just last month, Petra announced a “CRESS Acceleration Package” that reduced the SAC for firm supply to 14 sen/kWh from 20 sen/kWh previously, partly to improve the bankability of projects capable of achieving commercial operation by end-2028.
The move sent solar players’ share prices running amid investor optimism over new project opportunities outside programmes such as the large-scale solar bidding exercises.
The previously high SAC meant CRESS was commercially viable mainly for ultra-high-voltage consumers, such as hyperscale data centres, that place a premium on securing green electricity.
It is understood that today, only one CRESS project is making advanced progress and under construction, led by private-owned HLGY Energy Sdn Bhd in Kedah.
The lower rate of 14 sen/kWh would have allowed CRESS to compete with Tenaga’s electricity tariffs for a wider group of consumers.
However, Tuesday’s briefing, estimated to have been attended by around 100 participants, outlined an additional SAC of four sen/kWh applicable until end-2027 and “subject to Regulatory Period (RP) review”, which takes place every subsequent three years, according to presentation slides sighted by The Edge.
The additional charge effectively brings the SAC to 18 sen/kWh, just two sen below the rate prior to the September revision.
“It’s a roller-coaster ride,” said one solar farm developer. “Hopefully this is the final change [in the mechanism].”
Another industry player, however, pointed out that Petra’s September announcement had not been followed by an updated CRESS guideline. The “information [was] incomplete” and it would have been too early to make decisions then, he said.
It is understood that the latest revision came amid concerns that CRESS could attract too many existing industrial customers to switch to their own energy supply, reducing utilisation of existing grid and power generation infrastructure in which substantial investments have already been made and paid by existing electricity consumers.
An exodus to CRESS could leave a smaller pool of customers bearing the costs of the national power infrastructure and energy system, potentially pushing up the per-unit base tariff in future revisions, including the upcoming RP5 for 2028-2030.
For the current RP4 (2025-2027), the government has approved Tenaga’s base capital expenditure of RM26.55 billion, which is built into the base tariff, alongside another RM16.27 billion in contingent capex, mainly for solar farm interconnections, battery storage and upgrades to grid and distribution infrastructure to accommodate higher RE penetration and electricity demand.
In Peninsular Malaysia, electricity sales in 2025 totalled RM65.43 billion, comprising commercial (40.1%), industrial (26.8%), domestic (20.5%) and other customers (12.6%). Data centres, which fall under the industrial segment, currently account for around 7% of electricity demand.