The Suruhanjaya Tenaga (Energy Commission of Malaysia) has issued a 500 MW large-scale solar tender in Peninsular Malaysia. Once commissioned, the solar projects will be connected to the grid and sell energy to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) under a power purchase agreement.

This is the third large scale solar project tender under the country’s large scale solar program. The projects will be between 1-100 MW (AC) capacity and are expected to be commissioned by 2021. Information on the injection points for the connection to the grid will be communicated to the interested bidders after the requisition of Request for proposal (RFP) documents.

In the notice inviting bidders, the electricity commission states that the proposals with shallow connection will be encouraged to avoid unnecessary delays in the project implementation as well as reducing the cost of the interconnection. However, an alternative interconnection point may be offered by the bidder for consideration, subject to approval by the utility company.

RFP documents will be available for sale from February 14-27th 2019 at the electricity commission’s head office. Interested bidders are supposed to make a payment of RM 2,000 ($490) for the purchase of the RFP documents.

In December 2017, Suruhanjaya Tenaga, awarded 563 MW of solar projects in its second large scale solar tender, against an original planned capacity of 460 MW. Those projects are expected to be commissioned by 2020.

In November 2018, Mercom reported that the Malaysian government was likely to come up with an open tender in 2019 for an estimated RM 2 billion ($490 million) worth of solar projects. The country aims to increase its exposure to renewable energy from 2 percent to 20 percent by the year 2025.

Image credit: RESOL