Growth Of Data Centre Industry Supports Malaysia's Transition To Renewable Energy
By Norsyafawati Ab Wahab

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s status as Southeast Asia’s fastest growing data centre hub will not only spur the growth of the digital economy but also be a catalyst in the nation’s transition towards renewable energy (RE).

Dr Jasrul Jamani Jamian, associate professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Electrical Engineering Faculty, said the inflow of data centre players to Malaysia helps the government in optimising the country’s existing electricity generation capacity.

At the same time, he said, it will be a driver in realising the government’s efforts towards an RE generation capacity target of 70 per cent or 56 gigawatts in the energy sector by 2050.

From 2021 to 2023, Malaysia approved investments worth RM114.7 billion in data centre and cloud services.

It was also reported recently that Moody’s Ratings projected the power requirement for data centres in Malaysia to double to about 500 megawatts in the next two years.

“It’s high time for power generation using natural resources such as coal and gas, especially those that have been operational for 25 to 30 years, to be replaced with RE, which is more efficient and environmentally friendy,” Jasrul Jamani told Bernama.

He said that in expanding electricity generation, there is a significant need to transition towards RE from low-efficiency operations.

”The government is actually already moving in that direction, such as through the implementation of the Fifth Large-Scale Solar (LSS5) programme currently and the upcoming LSS6,” he said.

He noted that under the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR), with the high RE penetration, the country will require a large energy storage capability to ensure a stable RE dispatch.

He said the development of a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) using state-of-the-art technology is in line with the rise in RE capacity.

BESS, he said, will ensure that there will be no energy supply disruption affecting data centre operations.

Jasrul Jamani said BESS will also help data centre operators in reducing electricity bill cost by storing energy outside peak hours and using it during peak hours.

“Therefore, the development of data centres in Malaysia is in tandem with national efforts to transition from conventional power generation to RE generation,” he said.

He said the setting up of more data centres in Malaysia will bring revenue gains for Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) as the data centre industry requires a high and continuous supply of electricity.

According to him, TNB’s system has an excellent stability and capability level for meeting the needs of all consumers, including data centres, based on its projected power reserve margin of 28 to 36 per cent in Peninsular Malaysia from 2024 to 2030.

“Some people may have the notion that TNB should build a new power plant given that there will be a lot of data centres using a high amount of electricity. That is not the case.

“As we have surplus capacity and a high power reserve margin, the presence of data centres actually translates into good business for TNB. There is no issue about reliability or grid stability being affected due to the data centre development, as the utility firm has the capacity to support the high demand from data centres,” he said.

-- BERNAMA

Source: https://www.bernama.com/en/business/news.php?id=2335666

Buy TNB stock!

Public Investment Bank Maintains 'Outperform' Call On TNB Amid Growing Electricity Demand

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 (Bernama) -- Public Investment Bank (PIB) has maintained its “outperformed” rating on Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) amid its robust earnings result, lifted by significant improvement of its domestic generation segment business (Genco).

In a research note today, PIB said electricity demand continued to grow, with commercial and retail segments remaining the major drivers, leading to another peak demand record at 20.07 gigawatts in July 2024.

It said the actual unit electricity sold in the second quarter (2Q) FY2024 far exceeds the forecasted base sales set in Regulatory Period 3 (RP3), growing by 12 per cent.

“TNB is required to return about RM1.1 billion of revenue to the government due to revenue cap and price cap mechanism.

“We expect the finalisation of RP4 will have a more equitable return to TNB-regulated assets to ensure the system’s resilience amid growing energy demand,” PIB said.

Meanwhile, CIMB Securities Sdn Bhd believed the utility company is the primary beneficiary of the government’s decarbonisation agenda, benefiting from increased Regulated Asset Base (RAB) due to higher investments in TNB’s grid infrastructure and enhanced contributions from its Genco business.

“Potential downside risks include an unfavourable outcome for RP 4 2025-27 and delayed resolution of its Manjung coal plant outage,” it said.

CIMB Securities maintained its “buy” call on TNB.

On the other hand, Hong Leong Investment Bank opined that the surge in power demand above the regulated 1.8 per cent growth does not benefit TNB under the current regulatory period, as its transmission and distribution segment is regulated under the Incentive-based Regulation (IBR) mechanism.

“Nevertheless, the strong growth may provide a higher base for TNB’s upcoming RP4 2025-2027 with potentially higher allowable capex spending.

“Given the stable coal prices, we do not anticipate further huge fluctuations in fuel margin recognition in the second half of FY2024,” it said.

At 11.22 am, TNB’s share price rose 42 sen to RM14.36 per share with 6.04 million shares traded.

-- BERNAMA

Source: https://www.bernama.com/en/business/news.php?id=2334992

/k: renewables not really clean energy. The making of solar panel is toxic!

the only real state with real renewable energy is sarawak

End up empty inside 😂

Hope more data moving in can solve our power and water outage issue.

That could happen if our gomen keep impose restrictions n controls, and attempts to modify them to comply w religious rules

Power outage issue?

Solar power could generate 54X more profits than palm oil — Maybank

https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/714041

Hope TNB would work with landowners to promote AGROVOLTAIC in MY.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/agri...g-solar-energy/

Agrivoltaic farming is the practice of growing crops underneath solar panels.
Scientific studies show some crops thrive when grown in this way.
Doubling up on land use in this way could help feed the world’s growing population while also providing sustainable energy.

This post has been edited by MGM: Sep 2 2024, 08:46 AM

They do this in Japan

Can even put a harvester underneath them solar panels

Typo.
Its cleaner energy.

Data centres also require water for cooling in equatorial climate.
More centres means less water for real people. Then blame DAP.

Dont have to use treated water just use seawater.

If plant the data centre into the ocean = fine
but looks like they going to build on land
pumping sea water to cool centre = more energy.

you really believe they going to build solar and wind / renewable energy that erode profit?
what did bitcoin miners use?

Unless u stay in Sabah, I dont see any outage issue with TNB

How often u get outage?

It was a question to https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...ost&p=110373577

For all the flaws of Malaysia, power outage issues isn't really a issue (*kecuali Sabah)

Then what is your great idea, stop all these DC projects n do what?

In 2021, YTL Power’s 70%-owned subsidiary Sultan Iskandar Power Station had purchased 664 ha of oil palm estates for RM429mil from Boustead Plantations Bhd with the intention to develop large-scale solar plants.

RHB Research said 275 acres of the land is being carved out to develop a 500MW Green Data Centre Park with a total investment value of RM15bil, with the DC being owned by YTL Data Center Holdings Pte Ltd, a wholly subsidiary of YTL Power.


For Phase 1 of the project, it said YTL Power is investing RM1.5bil to build a Tier-III certified facility equipped with the ability to accommodate up to 72MW of capacity.

“The three-storey building consists of two wings of Data Hall suites and mechanical and engineering rooms and also eight Data Hall suites spread over two wings per floor, with a total of 24 Data Hall suites,” it said in a report.

The research house added that eCommerce firm Sea Ltd will be the anchor tenant for the 32MW information technology load hyperscale DC.

Construction of the facility is ongoing and the first 8MW is expected to be put on stream by the first quarter of financial year ending June 2024, with the remaining 24MW to come online progressively.

Gov't impose license ?
Locals voice out?
Otherwise, can always pray.

Renewable energy is limited in this country.