KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) plans to build new, cleaner power plants at existing Kapar and old Paka sites as it fast tracks its green energy blueprint announced last year to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
President and chief executive officer Datuk Baharin Din said TNB was looking at retiring certain coal-fired power plants earlier than the expiration of their power purchase agreement (PPA).
The potential multi-billion ringgit power units in Kapar, Selangor particularly will replace the current plants that will be retired a year earlier than its PPA expiration in 2031.
"We hope to start with Kapar Energy Ventures and are exploring the viability of retiring the 1,400 MW (megawatts) plant up to a year ahead of its PPA expiration, subject to shareholders' agreement and approvals from the relevant authorities and regulators," Baharin said at a briefing on an update of TNB's sustainability blueprint here today.
As for the old Paka plant in Terengganu which was decommissioned three years ago, Baharin said TNB would be working on "repowering" the facility with new technoogy.
"We have recently received a Letter of Intent to allow the repowering of our 1,400MW gas-powered plant in Paka, which we intend to make hydrogen-ready by 2029," he added.
The "repowering" of the Kapar and Paka power plants is part of TNB's redefined plan to increase the enterprise value of its generation company (GenCo) under TNB Power Generation Sdn Bhd.
Baharin said the redefined plan also included building "green" partnerships with reputable technology partners, possible listing of the GenCo and exploring hydro and gas opportunities in Southeast Asia.
"We are staying open to the possibility of an initial public offering of GenCo, should the opportunity come up. TNB is committed to turning around GenCo in terms of its ESG (environment, social and governance) performance to become a greener power generator.
"As demand for clean energy increases with the energy transition, we project the value of the local clean energy market to be an estimated RM65 billion to RM80 billion, and we intend to capture a significant share of about RM40 billion by 2050," he added.
For its new energy division (NED), Baharin said TNB was aiming to grow its renewable energy (RE) portfolio in existing as well as adjacent markets across Asia Pacific and Europe.
This will require some US$1.5 billion capital from 2022 till 2025, which TNB said can be "easily" raised from either equity partnerships, bond issuances or bank borrowings.
TNB has started talking to several big local institutional funds of becoming equity partners for potential projects in Europe and Asia Pacific.
Baharin said the NED growth targets would be executed by deploying and expanding expertise in development of RE assets across solar and wind, both onshore and offshore, complemented by utility storage in select markets.
TNB also plans to bolster the country's grid infrastructure, expecting to spend about RM2.6 billion under Regulatory Period 3.