ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the history of the small renewable energy power (SREP) in Malaysia, its drivers and benefits, and the challenges planners faced when implementing it. The SREP was a central component of Malaysian energy policy, and thus it provides an ideal situation to explore the dynamics at work within national energy planning. The Ministry of Energy established a Special Committee on Renewable Energy (SCORE) to oversee the program and defined eligible projects as those up to 10 MW of installed capacity. One respondent noted that "the tariffs paid to SREP developers were not based on sound economic principles, they were set with no consideration of actual cost recovery". A final institutional challenge related to the lack of a national, cohesive, strongly implemented policy framework on renewable energy. A sort of policy gap existed between the lofty targets enshrined in the SREP and the local developers and officials on the ground charged with realizing those targets.