SEDA details outcome of FiT in Malaysia

PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA: As promised to the public, the e-FiT online system went live at the stroke of midnight on 1st December 2011. The feed-in tariff (Fit) is mandated under the Renewable Energy Act 2011 where the FiT is administered and monitored by Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia (SEDA Malaysia).

According to Pn Badriyah Abdul Malek, CEO of SEDA Malaysia: “When the e-FiT online system was released to public, the traffic to the servers was beyond what was anticipated during the stress test conducted on the system. There were over 6,000 incoming traffic which flooded the gateway to our servers and our ICT team had to change the queuing logic for the server.”

It was understood the turnaround time was 8 minutes and once the access is re-opened, the server was able to respond within an acceptable timeframe. “Whether the server was under DDOS attack or there were genuinely so many trying to access our server remains to be forensically investigated by our ICT team”, said Pn Badriyah.

As of 2nd December, 10:00am, the outcome of the online applications submitted for renewable projects to be commissioned from 2012 to 2014 can be seen in the tables below: just put the total:Source: SEDA, Malaysia.

The gamma testing organized earlier in Nov. 2011 showed solar photovoltaic (PV) applications made up 90 percent of the total applications received. To date, 88 percent of the applications received were from solar PV, which reflected closely the results of the gamma testing.

“Not surprisingly, the quota for nonindividuals for solar PV was gone within the first two hours after midnight”, said Pn Badriyah. To date, there are still about 9 MW quota for solar PV left for the individuals. For the other renewable resources, the quota still available are 57.35 MW (biogas), 15.88 (biogas-landfill), 91.97 MW (biomass), 80 MW (biomass-solid waste), and 99.73 MW (small hydro) (2012 – 2014).

At the end of each half year, SEDA Malaysia will review the unallocated RE quota and decide on how they could be utilized for the next half year. In addition, SEDA Malaysia will also continuously monitor the market price trend of these renewable resources so the FiT rates are adjusted to reflect current condition as provided under Section 18 of the Renewable Energy Act 2011.

To applicants who have successfully submitted their feed-in approval (FiA) applications, SEDA Malaysia will require 14 days for verification of submitted online documentary evidences, receive payment for the application fee (only applicable to those RE systems larger than 72 kW) and the submission of declaration form in compliance with legal requirement. SEDA Malaysia will issue a Feed-in Approval (FIA) certificate once the verification process and procedures are completed.