ENERGY Ministers in the Asean region have agreed to set a new target of 35% renewable energy (RE) in installed power capacity by 2025.

This aim was made following Malaysia’s proposal for the region to set a target for RE in installed power capacity by 2025 during its tenure as the chairman of the Renewable Energy Sub-Sector Network (RE-SSN) from 2018 until 2020.

“Malaysia’s effort has come to fruition when ASEAN Energy Ministers agreed to set a new target of 35% RE in installed power capacity by 2025, which Malaysia believes will contribute to achieving ASEAN’s target of 23% of RE in Total Primary Energy Supply in 2025.

“This target is set under the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) Phase 2 which will be implemented during the period of 2021 until 2025,” said the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in a statement yesterday.

Its minister Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (picture) had attended the 38th Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting (38th AMEM) that was held virtually on Nov 19 and Nov 20.

During the meeting hosted by Vietnam, the minister had raised several issues regarding the current state of the energy sector in the region which has seen a drastic drop in energy demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shamsul Anuar suggested for Asean member states to leverage on energy transition in accelerating economic recovery.

He cited Malaysia as an example in offering 1,000 megawatts (MW) of solar quota via competitive bidding in May 2020 to bring potential investment worth RM4 billion and create 12,000 job opportunities.

“Shamsul also quoted the encouraging prices offered by the bidders with 56 out of 93 bidders offering prices below 20 cents/kWh for capacities between 30-50MW and the lowest bid received is 13.99 cents/kWh.

“He said that the prices offered clearly indicate that the pathway to a more sustainable energy future is becoming more competitive,” the ministry’s statement read.

He also thanked other Asean member states for the support given during Malaysia’s tenure as the chairman of Asean Forum on Coal from 2018 to 2020 and registered Malaysia’s interest to continue assuming the chairmanship of RE-SSN for the duration of APAEC Phase 2 from 2021 to 2025, in line with Malaysia’s increased efforts in embracing energy transition.

“In supporting Asean’s  vision in advancing multilateral power trading to ensure energy security, Malaysia continues to give its commitment in pursuing this path by pledging to explore the technical and commercial feasibility and viability of cross-border power trade of up to 100MW from Lao PDR to Singapore via Thailand and Malaysia using the existing interconnections for a two-years from 2022 to 2023.

“The project, known as Lao PDR, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore – Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP) is a continuation of the past power integration project, transferring power from Lao PDR to Malaysia through Thailand, the LTM- PIP project.”

It added Malaysia and Lao PDR had traded a total of 30.2 Giga Watt Hour of electricity from January 2018 to August 2020 under the project.

During the 38th AMEM, 15 companies from Malaysia has emerged as winners in two main categories in the Asean Energy Awards 2020 namely Asean Energy Efficiency and Conservation Best Practices and Asean Renewable Energy Projects.