ENERGY STORAGE PLAYS VITAL ROLE IN MALAYSIA'S SHIFT TOWARDS RENEWABLE ENERGY - SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (Bernama) -- Energy storage plays a pivotal role in advancing Malaysia's renewable energy agenda, said senior vice-president of Secure Power Division at Schneider Electric, Natalya Makarochkina. 

Amidst growing concerns over climate change and power supply constraints, she underscored the need for resilient grids supported by energy storage to integrate renewable sources effectively.

"The disruption of recent times has once again put a focus on the ability of businesses to adapt to change and be resilient. This is being applied to all business aspects, including supply chains. However, the same principles are drilling further down and into the fundamentals, namely power.

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"As the effects of climate change are being increasingly felt, and emission reduction deadlines approach, to a backdrop of outages and constrained power supply, power resilience and energy storage are vital in ensuring that renewable energy sources (RES) can be integrated into national grids and made suitable to power the digital economy in Malaysia," she said in a statement today.

Schneider Electric advocates for Electricity 4.0, the application of digital technologies to energy, to support growth and sustainability while ensuring resilience. 

Makarochkina pointed out that since the implementation of the Five Fuel Diversification Policy in 2000 and the subsequent adoption of the National Renewable Energy Policy in 2010, Malaysia has made significant strides in diversifying its energy mix, surpassing its 2025 renewable energy target of 20 per cent as early as March 2023, largely driven by solar energy.

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Notably, the country has unveiled the ambitious National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR), aiming to achieve 31 per cent renewable energy by 2025, 40 per cent by 2035, and 70 per cent by 2050.

However, she said the variability of renewables requires grid-scale energy storage where long-duration energy storage (LDES) and microgrids are gaining prominence.

According to her, LDES stands out as a major technical challenge, with solutions ranging from pumped-storage hydroelectricity to emerging technologies such as flow batteries and hydrogen storage. 

“This breakthrough is seen as a major boon for RES-dominated energy grids as it is scalable and more readily adaptable to the variability of wind and solar generation,” she said. 

She also pointed out a study conducted by McKinsey Sustainability, which projects a significant deployment of LDES by 2040, potentially representing up to 10 per cent of all electricity consumed globally.

Microgrid design, coupled with intelligent uninterruptible power systems (UPS), offers short-term storage capacity to mitigate peak grid usage and variability concerns.

Schneider Electric emphasises the importance of digital innovation in energy management, advocating for Electricity 4.0 to drive efficiency and facilitate smart grid integration, RES adoption and the path to net zero.

As renewable energy sources take centre stage in the energy transition, Schneider Electric positions energy storage as a critical enabler, empowering large energy consumers to contribute to a sustainable, renewable-powered future.

She said grid-scale energy storage and the resilience that it provides will be critical in facilitating those renewable energy sources in the digitalised smart grids of the future. 

“Large energy consumers, leveraging digitalised energy systems can be a part of that solution, supporting change, increasing transparency and underpinning the development of digital economies that are sustainable and accessible to all,” she added.

-- BERNAMA