KUCHING: The SUPP Bon Fire Team is calling on the state government and Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) to look into mechanisms for allowing homes that produce renewable energy from solar and wind for their household needs, to be able to ‘sell’ their surplus power to the main grid.
Its member, Sivanesan Sanmugalingam, said the mechanism, already available to users supplied by TNB in the peninsular called the Feed-In-Tariff (FiT) programme, encouraged more homes to adopt green energy solutions
“This will allow the people to look into investing into renewable energy solutions that can reduce dramatically their electricity bill or altogether eliminate paying a bill whilst instead collecting a rebate from the utility provider for the energy that has been put into the grid,” he said in a statement received here yesterday.
He explained such mechanism would encourage more homes to adopt green energy solutions.
It is understood that the Feed-In-Tariff programme in the Peninsular was designed to kick-start the green revolution towards renewable energy, for the country.
“The FiT programme facilitates the sale of electricity produced from renewable clean energy resources, to be sold back to utility companies at a fixed price for a specific period of time.
“Obviously the mechanism to be implemented has to be tailored to Sarawak’s need,” he said.
He said such call was made with an eye on the growing awareness and advancement in green technology in recent years.
He said the Bon Fire team felt that this type of development and evolution in SEB would further strengthen its fundamentals and attract more Foreign Direct Investments to Sarawak.
“Sarawakians today are in tune with the world and a positive move such as this will be something that is welcomed.
“The team is of the view that while we must criticise any matter that is of consequences to the people, this action must be a constructive one, not a destructive one,” he said, referring to DAP Sarawak’s campaign calling for SEB to lower the electricity tariff by 30 per cent.
The move by DAP, he said, was counterproductive and potentially destructive, and potentially a political ‘red herring’ to take away the people’s attention from DAP’s failings in the Penunsula.
According to him, the tariffs in Sarawak were lower than that in Peninsular Malaysia, and Sarawak’s electricity tariffs had not been increased for over two decades despite the rise in costs and the two global economic slowdowns.
“SEB has been able to absorb the financial pressures from increasing costs while at the same time, serving the residential and industrial demand in Sarawak.
“DAP Sarawak’s attempt to weaken SEB’s financial performance can only lead to problems that will eventually hurt Sarawak’s economic growth and the first to suffer will be the 4,000 strong work force in SEB who are largely Sarawakians.
“It will also see a chain reaction with a big drop in investor confidence. Why is DAP Sarawak succumbing to their political masters by sabotaging our state?” he asked.