Keynote Speaker 2

Abstract:

The government has decided to limit the maximum Reppa period to 10 years only; this goes against the spirit of NEM 2.0 which had an unlimited period for Reppa. Next year, the Government is introducing NEM 3.0 with many new conditions.
The Large-Scale Solar (LSS4) has undergone many price changes from about 40 cents/kWh, now coming to less than 20 cents/kWh. However, looks like the Government is siding with TNB to bring the price down as much as possible.
We have many residential units which require solar PV; these units should be able to sell at tariff rates. We can have a discount for the commercial and industrial units, say 20 % discount, but residential units should be able to sell at the existing tariff.
The existing Feed in Tariff (FiT) is only for biogas, biomass and small hydro; all are now going for bidding where the price has dropped from 46.6 sen/kWh for biogas, to only 40 sen/kWh, including all the bonuses. However, the price has increased slightly for small hydro; biomass is also going for bidding in the coming year.

Speaker’s Background: Dato’ Ir. Dr. Ali Askar Sher Mohamad graduated with a BSc (Electrical Engineering) from Purdue University, West Lafayette, and a Masters in Power Engineering from UNSW, Sydney. He completed his PhD at UNITEN on the technical impact of connecting large scale solar PV plants to the utility network. He has served the Malaysian power utility TNB in various engineering and management positions. He taught at UNITEN from 2009 to 2011, teaching renewable energy and power systems subjects, while acting as a consultant to carry out Grid connection and Feasibility Studies for various renewable energy plants. During this time, he was also appointed as the Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water on RE grid connection issues and related legislation.

In November 2011, he was appointed the first Chief Operating Officer of the newly set up Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Malaysia. During his tenure, renewable energy became a mainstream source of electricity, rather than being a fringe technology to be tolerated. On 31st March 2016, he ended his service as COO of SEDA and joined Sher Engineering & Consultancy Sdn Bhd, an engineering consultancy practice focusing on renewable energy projects, especially Grid connection in Malaysia and the ASEAN region, including ASEAN, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Dato’ Ir. Dr. Ali is active as an examiner for the Professional Interview for Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), sits on the Publication Committee of the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM), and is an Associate member of the Institution of Asset Management (IAM) UK. He is also an advisor to Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association since 2018, and also advisor to Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council (MREPC) on solar PV technology. He is also advisor to Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTEM) Melaka on their Technology courses and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) for their Masters in Electrical Engineering.