THERE will be no electricity tariff hike in Peninsular Malaysia for the next three years, and Sabah and Labuan until June next year, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Dr Maximus Ongkili said today.

The existing electricity tariffs are 38.53 sen/kWh in the peninsula and 34.52 sen/kWh in Sabah and Labuan from January 1 to June 30, 2018.

“For Peninsular Malaysia, this is end of the first phase of the three-year Incentive Base Regulation (IBR), where under the Imbalance Cost-Pass Through (ICPT) concept, studies are done to fix the tariff rate every three years.

“We are now ready for the implementation of phase two, and the federal cabinet, on December 13 decided to keep the rate … until December 31, 2020.

“This means, there will be no changes in tariff for domestic and commercial (users in the peninsula) for the next three years,” he said.

Ongkili said the federal government would spend RM929.37 million from January 1 to June 2018 to maintain an electricity tariff rebate of RM1.80 /kWh for consumers.

He said plans were afoot to implement the IBR system in June next year.

“We have tried to implement the IBR system in Sabah and Labuan in January. Nonetheless, the ministry is now discussing with Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd for implementation by second half of 2018,” said Ongkili.

He said the rebate for Sabah and Labuan will be maintained at RM1.20 sen/kWh.

From March 2015 until June 2018, Maximus said a total of RM6.3 billion would have be spent on providing electricity tariff rebates in Peninsular Malaysia and RM1.631 billion on fuel and tariff rebates in Sabah and Labuan.

He said TNB would increase the use of renewable energy to ensure efficient power supply in the peninsula.

He said the national utility firm plans to develop the Advance Metering Infrastructure with the installation of 1.5 million smart meters at premises in major towns and installation of additional fibre optic channel to increase reliability and safety in supplying power.

“Street lights will also be replaced with LED bulbs, 10 universities will be chosen to start solar projects, with each university being able to produce between 200MW and 20MW, and finally RM1 billion will be allocated by TNB under a five-year education programme from 2018 until 2022,” he said. – December 26, 2017.