Heavy electricity users to contribute 1 percent of bill to RE Fund

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- Electricity users who consume more than 300 kilowatt-hours (kWh) a month will contribute 1% of their total electricity bill issued by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to the Renewable Energy (RE) Fund.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui said the government decided to implement the new system from Dec 1 except for Sabah and Sarawak.

However, Chin said, the 75% of TNB's domestic users who consume less than 300 kWh a month would be exempted from contributing to this fund.

"I'm in full support of this strategy because apart from getting the public and industries to participate and contribute to green energy development, it also promotes all parties to use energy efficiently and to reduce their electricity consumption, because heavy consumers of electricity would contribute more to the RE fund," he told reporters after launching the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia (Seda Malaysia) office here today.

Also present were Seda Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn and CEO Badriyah Abdul Malek, as well as ministry secretary-general Datuk Loo Took Gee.

Chin said Malaysia's feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme is not financed by tax revenue but by the RE fund, which is contributed to by electricity consumers.

Under the scheme, he said, RE total capacity is targeted at 2,080 megawatts (MW) by 2020 and 4,000 MW by 2030, with the RE industry estimated to generate at least RM70 billion revenue for the private sector, which translates into tax revenue of at least RM1.76 billion by 2020.

Chin said construction, operation and maintenance of RE plants can generate at least 50,000 jobs in the country by 2020.

Since the government made the announcement to adopt the FiT mechanism, many parties have shown interest in participating, he said.

"I was informed by Seda Malaysia the quota is 190 MW, 190 MW and 250 MW for 2011/2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. Thus there is a critical need to create a fair and transparent system when opening the quota for interested renewable energy players," he said.

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