TNB ENTERS VIETNAM RENEWABLE ENERGY MARKET TOWARDS 8,300MW PORTFOLIO BY 2025

KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 4 -- To capture the rapid growth in the Vietnam renewable energy (RE) market, Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s (TNB) wholly-owned subsidiary, TNB Renewables Sdn Bhd, will collaborate with Singapore’s Sunseap Group in a 21.6MW project comprising five rooftop solar plants in Vietnam.   

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, TNB said it will also acquire a 39 per cent stake in the project from Sunseap Group.

It said the acquisition marked an important milestone for TNB as it expands its international renewable energy footprint into South East Asia.

“Prior to this acquisition, TNB’s global presence in renewable energy consists of a total portfolio of 2,732.3MW in Malaysia (including 2,536.1MW of large hydro) and 666MW across the UK, Turkey and India comprising mainly solar, wind and hydro energy generation assets.

“TNB aims to grow its overall renewable energy portfolio to 8,300MW by 2025 (including large hydro),” it said. 

The company added that the project has secured the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) under the FiT2 scheme in Vietnam which is intended to promote investments in renewable energy sources through lucrative and above-market rate tariffs.

“Having achieved commercial operation date in December 2020, all five plants are under 20-year Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with the state-owned utility company, Vietnam Electricity, to supply clean energy to the country’s national grid,” it said.

Sunseap currently holds 90 per cent stake in the projects, which will be reduced to 51 per cent upon completion of the 39 per cent stake acquisition by TNB Renewables slated for the first quarter of this year.

TNB’s president and chief executive officer Datuk Baharin Din said the acquisition will serve as a beachhead for TNB to establish a local presence in Vietnam and expand into the rapidly growing renewable energy and utility market in Vietnam.

“This acquisition builds on our earlier Malaysia-Singapore cross-border collaboration with Sunseap and demonstrates our commitment in transforming TNB into a regional RE and utility player,” he said.

Sunseap is one of the top solar rooftop companies in Southeast Asia and the largest solar company in Singapore with fully integrated solar business including presence in the energy retail segment. It has a net capacity of 1.2GW across 11 markets and more than 200 assets in various stages of development.

The latest 21.6MW rooftop solar project adds to Sunseap’s 168MW utility-scale solar farm it had built in Vietnam in 2019, and it is currently developing over 650MW of additional projects in Vietnam.

-- BERNAMA