KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has opened competitive bidding for one gigawatt (GW) of solar plants worth about RM4 billion, the largest capacity offered under its Large Scale Solar (LSS) scheme.
Public Investment Bank Bhd disclosed that the previous three cycles of LSS boasted capacities of between 370 megawatts (MW) to 500MW.
"The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, via the Energy Commission, is requesting proposals through competitive bidding process for the development of the fourth cycle of LSS (LSS4) projects.
"The aggregate solar capacity open for tendered this round was higher at 1GW. This is the largest capacity offered under the LSS programme so far," PublicInvest said today.
The solar plants under LSS4 are expected to start operating latest by December 31 2023, as the development of each plant would take up to 18 months.
"We are positive on this as we believe this could give opportunities to many industry players to participate in the bidding process," the firm said.
LSS4 offers a 1.0GW solar quota through the bidding process and is opened to fully-owned local companies or with at least 75 per cent local shareholding for companies listed on Bursa Malaysia.
"We understand that each developer can make a maximum of only three bids," PublicInvest said.
Two packages offered through the tender are 500MW for capacity between 10MW and 30MW, and another 500MW for capacity between 30MW and 50MW.
The projects are expected to be commissioned by end-2023, with a term of 21 years for each LSS plant.
PublicInvest believes the higher capacity quota under LSS4 could benefit Cypark Resources Bhd given its technical expertise and experience as the developer and operator of solar parks.
Mega First Corporation Bhd also had the intention of venturing into the renewable energy space in Peninsular Malaysia after the successful operation of its Don Sahong hydropower plant in Vietnam, it said.
Other beneficiaries could be Solarvest Holdings Bhd, Malakoff Corp Bhd, YTL Power International Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd.
The bid submission deadline for LSS4 had been reduced from six months to three months, PublicInvest said.
The tentative deadline for bid submission is August 29, while the shortlisted bidders are expected to be announced by end of this year.
PublicInvest said no reference price was disclosed this round.
The bidding price during the third rounds are between 17 sen to 58 sen per kiloWatt hour (kWh).
The firm believes the reference price for LSS4 would be around the same as LSS3.
Renewable energy (RE) has reached eight per cent of the energy mix, generated by LSS plants, Feed-in Tariff and Net Energy Metering developers.
RE generation in Peninsular Malaysia covers solid waste, small hydro, biomass, biogas, geothermal and solar.